OCCUPATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS IN HOSPITAL AND SANATORIUM PERSONNEL

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Abstract
It is a well recognized fact that tuberculosis is not a respecter of persons in any walk of life. It may attack a person of any race or occupation any time from birth until death. There are racial, occupational and environmental differences of susceptibility, tissue reaction and resistance, involving basic and complicated formulas in biometrics, which are as yet only partly understood. We recognize racial susceptibility and resistance, yet who knows what variations, if any, would exist if all races had lived for centuries under identical conditions? Influences not wholly understood are exerted in age and sex groups. The virulence of the organism and the size of the infecting dose necessary to cause disease are also significant factors. All agree that without the presence of the tubercle bacillus in the working environment or the body, tuberculosis cannot develop as an occupational hazard. Conditions of employment may conceivably cause activation of