The Disease Control Priorities (DCP) project has substantially influenced national and global health priorities since 1993. DCP’s basic framework involves identification of disease burdens based on premature deaths and disability and application of the most cost-effective interventions to the largest burdens, taking into account local feasibility. The future impact of DCP will need to take into...

How do global disease control priorities emerge? This paper examines the post-World War II histories of efforts to control three diseases--polio, malaria and tuberculosis--to investigate this issue. The paper draws from the policy studies literature to evaluate three models of the priority generation process. A rational model suggests logical selection based on global burden and the availabilit...