Development of Tuberculosis and Changes in Sensitivity to Tuberculin in an Institution for the Feebleminded—A Ten Years' Study

Abstract

Of 1,656 inmates of a school for feebleminded who had been tuberculin-tested and x-rayed in 1930, 1,023 were restudied in 1940. The % of positive reactors was somewhat higher than in 1930, but when compared by age groupings at the time of the test, there was a slight falling off up to age 30. Former reactors reverted to a negative state more often under age 15 than above this age. Tuberculosis developed most frequently, and conversions from a negative to a positive tuberculin reaction were most common among inmates of the building for patients of lowest mental status. The subsequent incidence of tuberculosis was higher among those who failed to react to tuberculin in 1930 than among the reactors.