What Is Tuberculosis?

What Is Tuberculosis?: Its Control and Prevention provides an introduction to the understanding of tuberculosis, a contagious lung disease caused by tubercle bacillus. This book discusses the characteristics, causes, treatment, control, and prevention of this disease.

Organized into two parts encompassing 85 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the nature of the problem of tuberculosis. This text then explores the characteristics of tubercle bacillus, which is very resistant and can live for a long time outside the body especially in damp dark places. Other chapters consider the modes of infection and explain how bacillus tuberculosis enters the body by inhalation and by ingestion. This book discusses as well the most dangerous source of infection, namely, a patient with open tuberculosis of the lungs. The final chapter deals with tuberculosis as a useful index of the social and economic conditions of a community.

This book is a valuable resource for physicians and scientists.

Preface

Part I What is Tuberculosis?

Introduction

Definition of Tuberculosis

The cause of Tuberculosis

Characteristics and varieties of Bacillus Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis and Heredity

Tuberculin Reactions

Significance of Tuberculin Reactions

Tuberculosis Infection

Sources of Infection

Typical cases of Infection

Changes, taking place in an organism infected with Bacillus Tuberculosis

First symptoms of Tuberculosis of the Lungs

Diagnosis

Mass Radiography and Tomography

Should a consumptive be told the truth?

Tuberculosis is a social disease

Social causes of Tuberculosis

The economic factor as a cause of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis and the home

Food and Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis and alcoholism

Tuberculosis and mode of life

Social Pathology of Tuberculosis

The spread of Tuberculosis

The fight against Tuberculosis in rural districts

Mortality from Tuberculosis in Yugoslavia

Mortality from Tuberculosis in England and Wales

Part II Prevention and Treatment

How to prevent infection

Preventing Tubercle Bacilli entering the body

Milk and Pasteurisation

Disinfection of books and letters

Disinfection of rooms

Disinfection of floors

Disinfection of furniture

Calmette - Guerin Vaccine (BCG)

Protection of children

Tuberculosis and marriage

Building up resistance to Tuberculosis

Education and propaganda

Importance of scientific work

Individual Treatment of Tuberculosis of the Lungs

Aims and Methods of Individual Treatment,

Hygienic add Dietetic Régime,

Fresh Air

Climatic Treatment

Rest

Exercise and Recreation

Sports and Work

Hydrotherapy

Heliotherapy

Diet

Special Methods in the treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Immunotherapy

Chemotherapy

Disinfection of sputum

Disinfection of table ware

Disinfection of clothing and linen

Collapse Therapy

Artificial Pneumothorax (A.P.)

Oleothorax

Pneumolysis

Phrenic Nerve Operations

Phrenic Alcoholisation

Thoracoplasty

Extrapleural Pneumolysis

Closed suction drainage

Combination of methods

Treatment of Tuberculous Diabetics

Medicinal Treatment

Treatment of Surgical Tuberculosis

Institutions for Treatment and Prevention

The Night Rest Centre

The Day Rest Centre

The Hospital

The Sanatorium

The Isolation Home

The Convalescent Home

The Colony

Papworth Village Settlement

Is Pulmonary Tuberculosis curable?

What we understand by cure and how to prove it

Is Tuberculosis as a social disease curable?