The changes in the place of health programmes in the international development process, over time, has meant that the role of health has come full circle, today. The paper describes this changing role of health, from the classic imperative of the medical practitioner to heal the sick and comfort the afflicted through a period when the justification for spending money on health programmes had to be sought in their contribution to economic development to the current period, in the 70’s, when once again, health programmes can be justified without recourse to economic arguments. To support this view, several figures, presenting data on the comparative savings from BCG and standard TB treatment in Burma (in the 60s) and the prevalence of TB in the Indian labour force (in the early 60s) are illustrated to show how they might convince development economists to provide money for the TB health programme.