Social efforts against pulmonary tuberculosis in Hungary

Abstract

In the 19^th century tuberculosis was one of the diseases that heavily contributed to Hungary’s cause-specific mortality. This study investigates that what kind of individual and social initiatives and efforts lead to the consolidation of this problem. The analysis concerns triple geographical approach, the European continent, Hungary and its Békés County. If we compare the historic European mortality rates, Hungarian rates were clearly the highest. Békés County belonged to the most infected areas. Pulmonary tuberculosis spread by droplet infection. Effective medicines and therapies were not available, thus the disease caused a lot of fatalities. Devoted men, new inventions, proper analysis of experience, excellent organisers, and charitable people were needed to solve the issue.