EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 491 
In 1939, a case-finding program at George Washington University 
School of Medicine was instituted. For many years prior to this, as 
I shall show presently, we had been making tuberculin surveys of all 
students, but a complete case-finding program had not, prior to 1939, 
been in existence in our institution. It is greatly to the credit of my 
former colleague, Dr. John H. Hanks, now in the Philippines, and 
Dr. David James, then president of the junior class, that they fur- 
nished much of the initial enthusiasm needed to get the program 
under way. The interest from the first of Dean Walter A. Bloedorn 
and the whole-hearted cooperation of the roentgenological and chest- 
physician group insured the success of the project. We have already 
indicated in a diagram how tuberculosis case finding works. It 
remains merely to give some of the results and to make a few 
observations. 
The percentage of tuberculin-positive reactors among 14 consecu- 
tive classes totaling 1,007 students at George Washington University 
School of Medicine is shown in table 2. With so many tuberculin- 
negative students in school, a situation true in most other schools also, 
it was only natural to expect that many of them would become tuber- 
culin positive. A good many of these tuberculin-negative students 
did become tuberculin positive but not nearly so many of them as one 
might expect. Washington is in an area of high tuberculosis mortal- 
ity (1940 figures, entire U. S. A., 45.9 per 100,000 population; District 
of Columbia, 64.4; Maryland, 79.1; Virginia, 58.1), and our students 
certainly come into contact with tubercle bacilli. We were particu- 
larly impressed by the large number of those who were originally 
tuberculin negative and who remained negative through a complete 
medical education in Washington, D. C. Data on this point are 
presented in table 3. 
TaBLe 2.—Tuberculin tests on 14 consecutive medical classes at the 
George Washington University 
Percent 
Class Status Number positive 
POSH ieree ae Ses: Ses DNase eee Sophomore 2 9) ouch oe oe ee ae 62 82.2 
NOSGRETE 795 Ue PT ee Cece ee eee Hreshman-et erp se tet Lede eg 71 98.5 
Spy e nee eS a ee es ao ea OGr ace eee Read 69 78.2 
NGoe ies oe ete Ue aie EIS eee. Ee: Goesteaie eee eat ee aire 74 54.0 
TUB ss Se Sea Re ee ee ey eee (6 PoE SE See ee NEE Eile ease 65 55.3 
0 ea ONE A Cs 2 eee a Ce ERTS R ALS [Eee 2 gees Seize yl Se La ee a eel 64 60.9 
QAR ou or UES oe 2 eee 0 YES oa ra eee eae? ee 69 69.5 
UDG eG kk See ne Sepa eas Se meh ed yt o Oo Ea oes Soaps am dee Oe a 42.2 
Tt ee oe ee ee ee ee er eee Ore ke aire een et teen ee tae 44.6 
AC Vo Bay A SSE ey een eeewt Ae be 2 We Se Gover ite ks ee ee ee es 65 46.1 
TCLS Uk ea eh ee 55 ae 2 PR Ee Oe a Ps aS 78 34.6 
OSG NTE? ihe A ee aise eee ee Go yssarees S15 sie ys age ae eh 77 40. 2 
SAE Ge EI Se a OE aa Pea re eT GOP eso cae wlan scnew see eee 83 53.0 
TORRE AEE ROLE ee CSO ee ree ee OR aist ps Ae Rona ee ee ee gs Fes eee 85 43.5 
*This school has been on the accelerated plan since before Pearl Harbor; the entering classes no longer 
require 4 years for graduation. 
