Tuberculosis FREE

Phthisiologists are a vanishing breed, understandably since tuberculosis is a dying disease—or is it? It certainly can be a deadly disease as indicated in the article in this issue entitled, "Miliary Tuberculosis in Children" (see p 583). Although the number of new cases occurring each year in the United States is steadily declining, tuberculosis is still far from a rare disease. However, because the disease is much less common at present, and because formerly it was more or less the exclusive province of the tuberculosis specialist, many physicians have not had much experience in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. In addition, because of the fewer number of new cases, the physician in training may not have the opportunity for personal contact with the disease. This is especially true of the pediatrician because most of the newly diagnosed active conditions are in the older population, in those persons who acquired