Abstract
Recently many intrahospital infections and mass outbreaks of tuberculosis have been reported, and it is an urgent problem for us to reconsider the countermeasures against them. Since July of 1998, we have prepared and followed original guidelines as a general hospital in order to prevent the intrahospital infection of active tuberculosis. The pharmacists in our hospital have also contributed to the preparation of these guidelines concerning several intrahospital infections except for tuberculosis.
In this study we put the tuberculin reaction's test based on our guidelines into practice for 381 applicants by all staff members in our hospital. There was no significant difference in the positive-ratio among the different professions, sexes or ages. However the positive-ratio in subjects under-forty years of age was significantly smaller than that in those over-forty years of age, thus suggesting that subjects under-forty years of age are in danger of being infected with tuberculosis. Moreover, the diameter of reddening in subjects in their thirties tendes to be shorter than that for those in their twenties.
Based on the findings, it is speculated that the effects of the past tuberculin reaction and BCG on subjects under-twenty years of age might decrease as they grow older. The diameters of reddening in subjects in their forties were significantly longer than those in subjects in their thirties. This may be because of the disclosure of the tubercle bacillus in many subjects over forty years of age.
