Human Contagion and Tuberculous Infection in Childhood

Intradermal Tuberculin Test

“…Although the information afforded by the result of the test in any given case is usually clear, it is difficult from the figures available to answer the question of how useful the test is as a general diagnostic measure, and it is to provide this information that the following analysis has been made. The figures heretofore published relate to special groups, such as children from tuberculous homes (Schlesinger and Hart, 1930), the clinically tuberculous (Hart, 1932), the clinically non-tuberculous (Hart, 1932), and children attending a special (chest) hospital (Dow and Lloyd, 1931); nor are figures compiled in other areas or relating to normals directly relevant. The fundamental facts underlying the use of the Mantoux test for diagnostic purposes are:…”

Tuberculosis in Home-Contacts: A Note on Incidence and the Role of Human Contagion

“…A critical summary of these investigations has been made by Hart (1932). Among the more important recent workers in this connexion must be mentioned Bernard and Debr6 (1920), Parisot and Saleur (1925), Opie and McPhedran (1926), Schlesinger and Hart (1930), and Dow and Lloyd (1931). Consideration of their researches leads to the following conclusions.…”

“…The importance of intimacy of contact in relation to infection and mortality has already been indicated (see also Table I), for children clearly have a more intimnate contact with the mother than with the father or sibling. The greater incidence of infection and mortality as the result of contact with sputum-positive rather than negative cases, with advanced than with mild disease, is revealed in the investigations of Schram (1922), Ropke (1923), Opie andMcPhedran (1926), Braeuning andNeumann (1929), Heynsius van den Berg (1929), Lissant Cox et al (1929), Schlesinger andHart (1930), andDow andLloyd (1930, 1931). Braeuning and Neumann (1929) observe that severity of case and intimacy (good or bad home conditions) are of little importance in the age group 1 to 4 years.…”

“…A fact of great importance in relation to the question of heredity is demonstrated by Schlesinger and Hart (1930) when they state that the percentage of tuberculia reactions among children exposed in tuberculous households to parents or siblings with non-pulmonary tuber-culosis was no higher than among children of non-tuberculous households. Bernard and Debre (1923) consider the ante-allergic period (that is, the time elapsing between contact and the appearance of a positive tuberculin test, a term first employed by Debre anid Jacquet in 1920) to be inversely proportional to the dose of contagion.…”

Primary Tuberculous Infection in Childhood: Incidence, Morbidity, and Mortality in an Urban Population

“…In Great Britain, no comparable studies are available. Tuberculin testing of children has been limited to hospital patients (Schlesinger and Hart, 1930;Dow and Lloyd, 1931;Bradshaw, 1939); and the only large-scale work on unselected children is that of Jones Davies (1943) in a Welsh rural area, and of Heimann and Paterson (1945) in Bournemouth.…”