Delay in tuberculosis care: one link in a long chain of social inequities

Abstract

In public health teaching, tuberculosis (TB) has been a traditional example of how disease occurrence is determined by the triad agent, environment, host. And it has since long been standard textbook knowledge that there are strong socioeconomic determinants behind all three components: The agent is more prevalent and is spread more easily in conditions of crowding and poor hygienic conditions, and under these conditions several host factors are also more prevalent, such as malnutrition and alcoholism.