As fear and paranoia about chemical weapons and bioterrorism are ratcheted up by Western governments, a global
health catastrophe threatens to undermine all efforts to eradicate poverty and human suffering. The resurgence
of old diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, along with the spread of new diseases such as HIV, are already
having devastating consequences for ever increasing numbers of people worldwide. Tuberculosis, a disease destined
as recently as thirty years ago for complete eradication, is now back on the increase: a total of one third of
the world's population is intected with the TB bacillus, and the disease is currently killing around two million
people each year. Contrary to popular belief, the enidemic is not contined to, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of
Asia: refiecting the increasing divide between rich and poor everywhere, outbreaks of the disease have occurred
in London and New York, and prevatence is alarmingly high in eastern Europe and Russia. This book provides an international
survey of current thought on the spread and control of tuberculosis, covering historical, social, political, and
medical aspects of the crisis. While the contrihutors may differ in their opinions over specific treatments or
policy strategies, all are agreed on the overriding thesis of the book -- that the resurgence of disease is one
of the most telling indictments of the failure of global political and economic institutions to anprove the lives
of ordinary people.