Social Meaning and the Possible Societal Responses to the Public Health Problem of Tuberculosis – Part 1

Understanding the social meaning and perceptions of a disease are the key to designing epidemiologically effective disease control programs. Tuberculosis continues to remain an important public health problem across the world, as also in India. This paper traces how the social meaning of tuberculosis has changed over the centuries under the impact of the advances in the knowledge about the disease, and how these changing perceptions have determined the societal responses to tuberculosis. The paper has been organized in two parts. Part 1 deals with the epidemiological dimensions of tuberculosis in India, a brief historiography of tuberculosis and a discussion on how social meaning of a disease is formed with a focus on tuberculosis. Part two traces the societal responses to tuberculosis in India and an analysis of the epidemiological aspects of the National Tuberculosis Program (NT P) and the Revised National Tuberculosis Program (RNTCP).