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Seventy years ago Australia was facing a public health crisis - tuberculosis (TB). The contagious bacterial disease was spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughed, spoke, sneezed, laughed or sang and it especially affected the lungs. In 1951 about three people in 1000 suffered from T.B. in Australia. In Victoria, legislation enacted at the end of 1951 allowed health authorities to require specified groups or persons in an occupational or geographic area to undergo an x-ray but mass screening generally remained voluntary. By the end of the 1950s Australia had almost defeated T.B.
