Tuberculosis

During the past decade the use of antimicrobial therapy has made necessary considerable revision of books dealing with the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. Because it has been extensively rewritten, and in order to emphasize its more inclusive nature, the present book has been retitled Tuberculosis: Prevention and Control. We believe that the new edition includes an accurate, readily understandable and sufficiently detailed presentation of modern concepts in this field. In addition to numerous references to antimicrobial therapy throughout the book, a chapter has been devoted to this subject, while the chapter on collapse therapy has been retained because it is comparatively recent treatment and undoubtedly there continue to be instances of its use; a discussion of excision surgery is included with collapse therapy. The increasing importance of the tuberculin test in case-finding as well as the practical value of photofluorograms is discussed. The modern emphasis on sputum examination by concentrated smear and cultural methods in diagnosis, as well as its role in antimicrobial therapy with reference to bacterial resistance, is reported at considerable length. An attempt has been made to point out the relationship of alcoholism, mental disease and other complicating conditions as they effect the incidence, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. In older men the increasing frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis and of pulmonary neoplasm constitutes a serious problem, particularly in urban chest clinics. - Preface.