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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Chau Trinh-Shevrin, MS, School of Public Health, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 182 East 95th Street, New York, NY 10128, 212-263-3072, cbt8@columbia.edu
Prior to the 20th century, tuberculosis was the captain of death, the white plague, and, for many, a death sentence. The scientific discovery of effective anti-tuberculosis drugs in the 1950s accelerated already declining tuberculosis rates, promoting both optimism of tuberculosis’s elimination and complacency of public health efforts. With the 21st century, the magnitude of tuberculosis’s global impact after the development of effective chemotherapy clearly illustrates the resilience of the disease and man’s failure to conquer it. More than any other disease, tuberculosis has had historical significance in shaping the public health movement and in influencing social debates on the extent to which individual liberties can be infringed to protect the health of the community. This presentation reviews the historical evolution of tuberculosis testing and screening and examines the legacy of tuberculosis control policies. In the 1890s and the 1990s, the issue of compulsory notification and isolation of communicable diseases arose in addressing the challenges of tuberculosis, which eventually fueled a heated debate between public health and medicine and between social interests and individual autonomy. In New York City, more than a century has passed since the legislation of compulsory registration of tuberculosis cases, the isolation cases considered a danger to society, and conduct of mass screenings. Yet many ethical and legal considerations have emerged with the changing epidemiology of tuberculosis, locally and globally. Current understanding of addressing these considerations can be facilitated by awareness of how tuberculosis policies have evolved over time and the populations affected by these policies.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: History, Tuberculosis
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.