Historical and Present-Day Tuberculosis in Hamilton, Ontario: A Public Health Focus

Abstract

<p> Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases known to human kind. This research focussed on this disease because of its historical and present-day significance in public health. Data were collected from the Hamilton Board of Health's Annual Reports from 1905 to 2000, the Hamilton Board of Health's Minutes from 1884 to 1949 and the Hamilton Health Association's Annual Reports from 1907 to 1974. Three movements of public health—sanitary, germ and "new"—were the frameworks for data analysis. Over the course of the public health eras, tuberculosis surveillance, treatment, prevention and responsibility were found to shift according to changes in ideas associated with public health. The Hamilton tuberculosis data were also found to support the ideas and theories associated with each epoch in public health, such as the sanitary movement's link between health and the environment, the germ era's "lifestyle" theory and the "new" public health's emphasis on community. The Hamilton tuberculosis experience also illuminated an intricate relationship between tuberculosis education, surveillance and responsibility. This study of tuberculosis in Hamilton is not only historically interesting but, as tuberculosis continues today as a public health issue, some of the efforts undertaken in Hamilton at the turn of the 20th century are being resurrected in Hamilton at the start of the 21st century. </P>