Tuberculosis in Pakistanis in Bradford.

In 1954 it became noticeable that Asians had started to settle and form a colony in the central wards of the City of Bradford. Since 1954 this colony has steadily increased in size-so much so that their presence is obvious to any visitor to the city. It was during 1954 that Asians with tuberculosis were first seen at the Bradford Chest Clinic. The clinical impression at the time was that pulmonary tuberculosis in Asians was acute in type and of recent onset. Since 1954 the number of Asian patients attending the Chest Clinic has increased at an alarming rate and a high incidence of tuberculosis has been discovered. In 1961 one out of every three new male patients seen at the Chest Clinic was an Asian, and the number of cases of tuberculosis discovered in male Asians was numerically greater than in all other adult males resident in the city. Since 1955 the problem of tuberculosis in Asians has been under constant scrutiny, and determined efforts have been made to keep the resident Asian population under the closest possible radiological supervision. Investigations have been undertaken to determine the date of diagnosis in relation to the time of immigration, to decide whether the Asians had a tuberculous infection at the time of immigration or whether they developed disease in this country, and to determine if x-ray examination of the chest on arrival in Britain would have been a profitable measure in the control of tuberculosis in the Asian population resident here. The aims of this paper are twofold: firstly, to state the size of the problem; and, secondly, to relate the date of diagnosis to the time of immigration. Approximately 80-85% of the Asians in Bradford