Few Children Aged Five Are T.B. Contacts

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 11

Few Children Aged Five Are T.B. Contacts

The number of five-year-old children revealed as

tuberculosis contacts by last year’s Health Department testing programme in Christchurch was so tow that the programme would not be continued among this group, Dr. F. A. de Hamel, DeputyMedical Officer of Health, said yesterday. Instead, third and fourthformers would be tested this year, he said. The test used would be the Heaf test, which gave the Child only a slight thump on the skin Dr. de Hamel said. This was the test which had been used so successfully with the five-year-old children. The use of the older Mantoux test, which required a syringe, had been discontinued. Dr. de Hamel said he was delighted with the result of the testing of the five-year-old children. Only six of 3100 tested had been found with a positive reaction. He was equally delighted at the response by parents to the scheme, and the interest shown by teachers. Fewer than 3 per cent, of parents refused to let their children be tested. Of the six children showing positive reactions, one was known to have had the disease earlier in life, two were found to have active tuberculosis, Which had subsequently been notified, and the other three gave no Xray evidence of tuberculosis, but were under treatment to control any latent disease. The contacts of t he six children had been thoroughly investigated to track down the source of the infection. In one case the source could hot be traced, and in the

other five the child had been in contact with known adult cases.

“Most Encouraging” “The picture among five-year-old children is most encouraging, and extremely different from the picture of a few years ago,” said Dr. de Hamel. “The number of active cases in the commnuity is very evidently falling rapidly.” Older children, however, had been bom when tuberculosis was much more widespread, and a much higher incidence of positive reactions could be expected among them. If the department succeeded in reaching its target of 5000 tests among third and fourth-formers, it expected to find about 350 positive reactions among them. It would then be faced with the task of investigating the possible sources of their infection. Last year, the mass X-ray units of the department picked up roughly one active case of tuberculosis for every 1400 X-rays taken, said Dr. de Hamel. This was only an approximate figure, since the returns were not yet completed.