The first organised voluntary association was formed in UK in 1898. His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales who was the founder president, at the time of inaugurating the `National Association for the Prevention of Consumption and Other Forms of TB', raised the famous question “If preventable, why not prevented”? We might as well ask ourselves the same question even today in India.

Eighteen TB camps were conducted in Bombay between January 1969 and April 1971 to provide diagnosis and treatment facilities to rural areas. The total number of persons examined were 7,351, the number of persons screened 2,782, the number of radiological cases of pulmonary TB seen 562, the number of sputum positive, 152 and the number of BCG vaccinations done, 23,308. It was concluded that TB camps played a substantial role in the Anti-TB measures, especially, in rural areas and, other developing nations could organize such TB camps.

The real economic loss to industry, from the prevalence of TB, is greater than the estimated cost of Rs. 200 crores and 90-100 crore man-days (1961). This is because some tuberculous workers get examined in an advanced stage, implying many unsatisfactory work days, and, some workers resume work before they are fit implying shorter hours worked. With some exceptions, the majority of the patients can receive ambulatory treatment. The author quotes several studies confirming that the regulation of physical activity was an important factor in management of the patient during illness and convalescence. The functional respiratory tests were important as a preliminary rehabilitation measure and as a control of the progress of such rehabilitation. There must be graduated movements and varied exercises in rehabilitation, with the kind of exercise being dependent on the clinical form, the phase of the disease, age, gender and occupation of the patient.

According to Carr (1959), TB patients were classified as 1) Curables, 2) Incurables. Those included in the former group are: a) Retired people, and b) Those able to return to their former occupation; Those included in the latter group are: b) Those with no former occupation, and d) Those unable to return to their former occupation because of the risk of relapse or impairment of respiratory function. The kinds of rehabilitation activities for patients in these different categories are described. The two main types of rehabilitation facilities are: 1) Village settlement, 2) Modified existing site (by combining favorable medical factors, early case-finding and intensive follow-up, with favorable social circumstances, adaptable employment). The set-up in the Philips industries in Holland is described to illustrate that the adoption of the second type of facility resulted in marked lowering of TB mortality.