[Tuberculosis: a perspective on its development from an epidemic to an endemic disease--reminiscences of a contemporary witness].
The prevalence of infection, i.e. endemic infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which was 100% in post-adolescent adults in 1900, had decreased to 23.1% by the year 1998. In Switzerland, on average 1100 active tuberculosis cases were diagnosed in hospitals (acute-care clinics) between 1990 and 1993. A mass X-ray fluoroscopic screening performed in 1943/44 by the Swiss Army detected 967 cases of active tuberculosis, corresponding to 1.9 per thousand of the fluoroscopically screened subjects. In 2000, photofluorography examinations performed on asylum seekers detected 3.25 per thousand cases of active tuberculosis. Since the beginning of 2006, these examinations have no longer been performed to save costs. Back in 1890, 6639 of the patients died of tuberculosis; by 2001, this number had dropped to an incredibly low 22. Our present aim must now be to prevent the primary infections that will later lead to tuberculosis in 5-8% of the cases. Consequently, we will not be able to eradicate tuberculosis in Switzerland for two to three more decades; a feat that might not even be accomplished within in a century in the developing countries.
Haefliger
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D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000266:history*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000266:history*; D019353:Endemic Diseases / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D013557:Switzerland; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000266:history*