A great deal of attention has been given in recent years to the role of the private sector in tuberculosis control. This monograph presents a brilliant account of current knowledge on this topic and suggests a policy framework for national tuberculosis programmes to consider. Such a question is naive in the extreme and reflects a perspective distanced from the reality of the field.
Tuberculosis is an ubiquitous disease.
Although it is particularly associated with poverty, no one is totally immune from the risk of tuberculosis. Even those who have been successfully cured of the disease have been shown to have the possibility of becoming infected again and subsequently ill with a recurrent episode. Consequently, tuberculosis is encountered at any and all levels of every health service in the world . This includes every location from the highly specialized tuberculosis clinic right to the ophthalmology and urology units. Obviously, the greatest numbers of patients will access service first at the most peripheral level of the health service.