Problems to Be Solved if the Eradication of Tuberculosis Is to Be Realized

I T WAS only six years ago, at Kansas City, that the American Public Health Association, for the first time, passed a resolution in support of the concept of eradication in the prevention of communicable diseases. In the six years that have elapsed since the first acceptance of eradication we have advanced such a tremendous distance that it is now possible to discuss the eradication of such a difficult problem as tuberculosis. Our discussion is related to the eradication of what has been and is, probably, the most widespread of human ills, the most chronic and persistent of infections, with the longest period of infectivity of any disease, and the disease whose prevention most clearly depended, until recently, on the improvement of social and economic conditions. The very fact that this session is held will force public health workers everywhere to consider the possibilities of eradicating not only tuberculosis, but surely a host of the lesser ills of mankind. Although I am innocent of direct participation in tuberculosis prevention, 1 have had long association with eradication projects dating back some 40 years. Not all of these projects have