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CHILDHOOD TUBERCULOSIS AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY
Author(s) -
Drummond R.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1969.tb107594.x
Subject(s) - tuberculosis , epidemiology , transmission (telecommunications) , incidence (geometry) , medicine , bovine tuberculosis , age groups , pulmonary tuberculosis , environmental health , pediatrics , demography , mycobacterium tuberculosis , pathology , mycobacterium bovis , telecommunications , physics , sociology , computer science , optics
An investigation was carried out to determine the reason for the higher incidence of notified primary tuberculosis in children in Victoria than in Queensland. A selective study using strict criteria showed that the transmission of tuberculosis in Victoria is indeed much greater than in Queensland. The view is put forward that the factors governing transmission are adequacy of ventilation, intensity of contact and amount of bacterial emission from the infecting source. It is the difference in the first two factors which is responsible for the difference in notification rates. It is stressed that in the understanding of tuberculosis epidemiology, breakdown of an arrested lesion must be differentiated from the development of an initial focus. Childhood tuberculosis reflects this initial phase, whilst adult tuberculosis reflects the breakdown phase. It is suggested that the importance of ventilation in the spread of tuberculosis has been underestimated, because breakdown and transmission have not been considered separately in pertinent analyses.