TB

“ . . . not because it was on the rise but because it served other compelling agendas. First, the TB crusade helped to popularize the legitimacy of the new germ theory of disease . .. . Unlike sexual transmitted diseases, which were on the rise . . . the TB problem could be openly discussed in public without offending social mores. Finally, TB served well as a vehicle for pushing a wide range of societal reforms aimed at easing the dislocations of urbanization and industrialization” (Tomes II, 631).