Tuberculosis in Ei Salvador

Abstract

THE March issue of the Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana contains an interesting paper by Dr. Rafael Vega Gomez, head of the Tuberculosis Department and ex-director of health, El Salvador, on the control of tuberculosis in his country. The campaign against the disease began in 1928 with the foundation of a National Tuberculosis Sanitorium, in which the number of beds has risen from 30 to 105. Previously the only accommodation for tuberculosis were some rooms in the Hospital Rosales of El Salvador. In 1931 the local Red Cross opened the first public dispensary and founded the National Anti-tuberculosis League. Five years later another dispensary was opened at Santa Ana. In 1939 the director of health created a Department of Tuberculosis and in 1940 opened a new dispensary where 14,000 examinations were made and 93 percent of the contacts were investigated, while 5,000 homes were visited. In 1938 the first census was taken to determine the amount of infections among school children in the capital ; 4,151 were examined. The Montoux and Pirquet tests were found to be positive in 32.8 percent of the five to six year olds, and in 62 percent of those aged 14-15. Similar results were obtained in Santa Ana in 1939. Of 12,000 apparently healthy persons at El Salvador in a population of 100,000, 1.42 percent showed signs of active tuberculosis. Recent figures showed a distribution of 22 percent, 64 percent and 14 percent among the minimal, moderate and advanced lesions respectively, which are very encouraging figures compared with those of 1932, when about 72 percent of the cases showed advanced lesions.