FROM PATHOLOGY TO EPIDEMIOLOGY IN TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

The approach to epidemiology in current teaching is commonly by way of bacteriology. In diphtheria, scarlet fever, influenza, pneumonia, plague and infectious diseases in general, hygienists and sanitarians have concerned themselves chiefly with the etiologic agents of the diseases, the means by which they are spread and the measures that may be taken for prevention. In tuberculosis epidemiologic stress has been laid on the tubercle bacillus, the sputum that acts as a vehicle in its dissemination, the closeness of contact between patients and healthy children or neighbors, and the methods by which the chain of infection from man to man may be broken, including isolation of the sputumpositive patient, the collapse of the infected lung to prevent the outflow of infected sputum and, at times and in some places, attempts at immunization of the patient's children. In their clear perception of the means by which this chain may be cut,