Certain Epidemiological Aspects of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Northern India

Observations on some epidemiological aspects of pulmonary tuberculosis, based upon an analysis of a thousand consecutive cases and a thousand radiographs studied at the Government Tuberculosis Institute, Madras, were made by Sanjivi (1939). India is a very big country?very often termed a sub-continent? and the various parts of the country show a vast variety of climates, diets, economic conditions of the people, industrial conditions and state of communications, etc.?factors which may influence the incidence and type of tuberculosis. We have, therefore, attempted in this paper to put forward an analysis, based upon a study of the histories of 1,298 patients who out of 3,153 new patients attending the out-patients' department of the Rai Bahadur Amar Nath Tuberculosis Institute, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, in 1939, were diagnosed as cases of pulmonary tuberculosis on the basis of some definite evidence. The analysis has been done on lines similar to those followed by Sanjivi (loc. cit.). Though most of the figures given below relate to the patients who attended the Tuberculosis Institute in 1939, under one item (age incidence) corresponding figures about patients who attended the Institute in 1937 are also given because they were also available. A study of this factor was made by one of us (K.L.W.) in 1937, but the results were not published. Table I