The resurgence of tuberculosis in the tropics. Improving tuberculosis control--social science inputs

Public health has for long been dominated by the notion of 'control'. However, social science research on tuberculosis in the tropics indicates that policies and programmes that take 'control' as their primary focus may fail to meet the health needs of patients and their communities. It is proposed that research and programmes meet the public health goal of lowering the prevalence of disease in populations by forging and cementing partnerships which take the support and care of patients as their focus. These will be partnerships between researchers in the North and the South, between research and programmes/policy, between outside 'experts' and communities themselves and between (public) health and other social service sectors. Social science approaches to operations research in tuberculosis are outlined, and data from a recent project in New Delhi are introduced.