Recent worrying reports of the re-emergence of tuberculosis in Malta introduced by immigrants, and of drug-resistant tuberculosis in some African countries, reminds one of the great contribution the late Dr Anthony Lanfranco made to Maltese public health.

Dr Lanfranco taught us, 40 years ago, that drug-resistant tuberculosis may emerge if patients lapse on the several months of multi-drug therapy needed to eradicate the infection. This is now sometimes put across, even in prestigious overseas medical media, as a supposedly recent therapeutic discovery.

Dr Lanfranco set up an isolation ward, at the top end of the St Vincent de Paul Hospital complex (Ruzar Briffa Ward, if I recall correctly) for his tuberculosis patients.

The main purpose of this isolation ward was to make sure that patients complied with therapeutic requirements - he felt that patients would not continue taking the multiple drugs required several times a day, for several months, if they were permitted to go home.  

This is what is thought to have happened in countries where drug-resistant tuberculosis has emerged.

Dr Lanfranco eradicated tuberculosis from Malta practically single-handed. It is a failing on our part that his Maltese public health legacy has not been more adequately publicly recognised.