DIABETES AND TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

The significance of the association of diabetes and tuberculosis is accentuated by two circumstances: (1) the continued rise in the frequency of diabetes and (2) the increase in the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in persons with diabetes in spite of the sustained prewar decline in the tuberculosis mortality rate in the general population. Relative to the association of diabetes and tuberculosis the available reports show a striking difference between European and American data. If the tuberculosis morbidity rate is calculated by multiplying the mortality rate by 10, as suggested by Krause,1the average tuberculosis mortality rate from 1927 to 1938, inclusive, corresponding to the period covered by the reports of the American authors presented in table 2, was 64 per 100,000. This indicates a morbidity rate of 0.6 per cent. When this figure is compared with the average incidence given in table 2, it appears that tuberculosis occurs four