Eradication Of Tb ‘Still Many Years Ahead’

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30152, 8 June 1963, Page 18

Eradication Of Tb ‘Still Many Years Ahead’

The virtual eradication of tuberculosis in New Zealand “is still many years ahead,” says Dr. S. Hickling. of the Otago Medical School, in the “New Zealand Medical Journal.” “Although the incidence continues to decline rapidly, we can expect the rate of decline to slow appreciably in the near future," he says. "As the yield for effort expended on tuberculosis control diminishes with the falling incidence of the disease, so control measures must be reviewed and adapted to counter this trend as far as possible. Coupled with this must be concentration of resources on areas of higher incidence; these at present correspond very much with areas of high Maori population. Rewarding Measures

“The most rewarding measures will be the fundamental ones—immediate investigation of all patients with signs or symptoms in any way suggestive of tuberculosis, especially the older person with a chronic cough; intensive investigation of case contact; adequate treatment of patients and their isolation while infectious: selective surveillance on completion of treatment.

“Mass miniature radiography should continue to play a valuable part in early case detection for some years to come, but increasing concentration on high-risk and highdanger population groups is clearly indicated. “Routine B.C.G. vaccination and routine tuberculin-test-ing programmes can only offer a diminishing dividend.

“The bovine tubereule bacillus now plays but a small part in human infection, and even this residuum could be virtually eliminated by the further development of milk pasteurisation and routine tuberculin-testing of all milk-supply herds," Dr. Hickling says.