TRENDS

Abstract

A MONTH ago, in this column, we called attention briefly to a mass vaccination program which is being conducted on a global scale. Some of the early results are now appearing and carrying far-reaching significance in the universal fight against tuberculosis. The program began in the spring of 1947 when the Danish Red Cross started a demonstration of mass tuberculin testing and BCG vaccination in several European countries as a postwar measure against tuberculosis. A year later the Swedish Red Cross and the Norwegian Relief for Europe joined in the work, and in March 1948, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Danish Red Cross and its Scandinavian associates formed a new organization known as the Joint Enterprise. The WHO has given technical assistance to the program through its Expert Committee on Tuberculosis and through the Subcommittee on Tuberculin Testing and BCG vaccination. In February 1949, the WHO established in Copenhagen a Tuberculosis Research Office to study. tuberculosis on an international basis with special emphasis on problems connected with the BCG campaign. Dr. Carroll E. Palmer of the Division of Tuberculosis of the U.S.P.H.S. was appointed as Director of the Joint Enterprises. By the end of March 1950, a total of more than 24 million children and adolescents in 20 different countries were tuberculin tested and over 11 million of them vaccinated with BCG. National Health services and voluntary organizations cooperated under the Joint Enterprise in this International Tuberculosis Campaign. In Poland alone over 5,500,000 persons have been tuberculin tested and over 2,500,000 vaccinated with BCG. In Germany the number tested totaled over 4,300,000 and the number vaccinated over 1,500,000.