The Jan. 6, 1909 NYT reports on a report issued by the New York State Board of Charities concerning the economic cost of tuberculosis:

Considered from an economic standpoint, the annual cost of tuberculosis in this State is estimated by the State Board of Charities, in a statement given out to-day, to approximate $63,000,000, which includes the value of workers prematurely lost to the State.

"In the death of the young as well as the mature," says the statement, "the State sustains a direct financial loss, as such death means the elimination of future workers and by premature death of adults the Commonwealth is deprived of the earnings which should have accrued between the date of the death and the end of the productive period of `probable life,' less the cost of maintenance during the period."

In 2007 dollars, the total is approximately $1.5 billion, but this figure grossly understates the true social cost of the disease. One would want to account for non-monetary costs of premature deaths suffered by loved ones and the monetary costs people incurred in trying to avoid the disease (even if those efforts were ineffective).

According to this World Health Organization report on tuberculosis, 13,000 cases of TB were diagnosed in the US in 2006 with 1,300 cases proving fatal. According to this entry in the "Classic Encyclopedia," in the month of October 1917 there were 1,089 TB deaths in the state of New York alone.

I just finished listening to Gregg Easterbrook's interview on Russ Robert's Econ Talk concerning Easterbrook's 2007 book "The Progress Paradox" in which it is outlined how things in our modern world are substantially better than they were 100 years ago (and less) yet people seem to not appreciate the improvements. It would seem that TB, or rather the substantially reduced threat it poses in the United States, is another example of what Easterbrook describes.