Fighting Tuberculosis in Colonial Cyprus, 1930s to 1950s

This article contributes to the research on the histories of public health, specifically tuberculosis, in the British Empire. During the inter-war years, coordinated efforts began across the British empire to study the problem of tuberculosis and implement measures to combat it. This article explores these efforts in Cyprus, which was occupied and administered by the British since 1878, and became a Crown Colony in 1925. Cyprus was problematic for the British because of the militant Greek nationalist movement demanding union with Greece (enosis), potentially leading to conflict with the Turkish Cypriot demographic minority. In the 1930s, the British surveyed the problem of tuberculosis in the island, and over the next 15 years, implemented measures to combat it. Working with the relevant government departments in London and the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in the UK, the colonial government, with its medical and public health officials, created the infrastructure and services necessary to combat tuberculosis. While the British could not resolve the constitutional and political issues in the island, they still implemented successful public health initiatives (unlike in neighbouring Palestine), which endured the subsequent conflict and carried into the Republican era.