Comparison was made on the reactions caused by tuberculin and by Dharmendra's antigen, i. e. Fernandez's reaction, among general population of S-village, primarily in 1956 and secondary in 1957. The number examined was 2, 269 in 1956 and 1, 126 in 1957, respectively. The examinees in 1956 have had no history of previous BCG vaccination, while those of 1957 were consisted of the BCG vaccinated and the unvaccinated, i.e. primarily examined, persons.
Results obtained were as follows:
1) Positive rate of Fernandez's reaction was 9.1% in 1956 and 21.1% in 1957, and that of tuberculin reaction was 44.2% in the former and 55.2% in the latter, respectively. Positive rate of Fernandez's reaction was, accordingly, markedly lower than that of tuberculin reaction, and the correlation between the reaction sizes to both antigens were low in both instances.
2) Positive rate to Dharmendra's antigen among the positive reactors to tuberculin was 18.1% in 1956 and 33.4% in 1957, respectively. All of the tuberculin positive reactors in 1956 were consisted of persons naturally infected by tuberculosis, but those of 1957 were consisted of persons naturally infected by tuberculosis and BCG vaccinated persons in 1956 as mentioned above.
3) Among BCG vaccinated persons, positive rate to Dharmendra's antigen was 11.4% and that to tuberculin was 31.1%, whereas among unvaccinated persons, they were 31.8% and 81.6%, respectively. Accordingly, it seems likely that there exists relationship, to a certain extent, between the positive rates to both antigens among BCG vaccinated and unvaccinated.
4) The frequency distribution curves of positive rate to Dharmendra's antigen by age group in 1956 has shown single peak at the age group 40 to 59 similarly to that of the tuber culin positive rate, which increased linearly up to the age group 40 to 45 and then decreased slowly. The relationship between these two curves obtained in 1957 was similar to that of the primary investigation in 1956, in spite of the fact that 52% of the examinees in 1957 were BCG vaccinated and the positive rates to both antigens were slightly higher than those in 1956.
5) As certain relationship between the reactions to tuberculin and Dharmendra's antigen was suspected, the prevalence of leprosy infection was estimated on the results of the positive Fernandez's reaction among persons with negative tuberculin allergy. The positive rate to Dharmendra's antigen among tuberculin negative persons was 1.6% in the primary investigation (1956) and 3.3% in the secondary (1957), respectively. The latter figure was analysed accordingly to the BCG history, and it was found that among the unvaccinated group the positive rate was 1.4%, while that of vaccinated was 3.7%. The figure in the former coincides well to that of the primary investigation (1.6%). From these results the positive rate of Fernandez's reaction among the unvaccinated inhabitants in S-village can be estimated as high as 1.5%.
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