Speculations on the Future Treatment and Control of Tuberculosis

¹ Clinical Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine.

The personal physician should expect to serve ever more important functions in preventive medicine and public health.

Minifilm surveys of the future are likely to be limited to special population groups who face unusual hazards of thoracic disease.

Insurance against expenses of illness should cover such catastrophes as pulmonary tuberculosis. Present day methods of treatment have reduced the cost of treatment and the prevalence of the disease has diminished sufficiently so that such insurance need not be expensive.

Diminished bed occupancy of tuberculosis hospitals should permit the abandonment of less effective institutions and improvement of the surviving hospitals.

The treatment of recently converted tuberculin reactors appears to be a logical and feasible substitute for BCG vaccination in many social groups in the U.S.A.

Physicians in private practice should provide more direct personal support and encouragement to local and state tuberculosis associations.

The Veterans Administration and the Armed Forces will continue to provide leadership in the field of tuberculosis and related problems.