The Importance of Changes in Diagnostic Standards and Classification of Tuberculosis

Excerpt

A significant step has been taken to integrate tuberculosis into medicine. For years Diagnostic Standards and Classification of Tuberculosis, published by the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association (NTRDA), has presented tuberculosis as a mysterious infection not subject to the laws of nature. In the Twelfth Edition, recently released by the NTRDA, Dr. A. Falk and his committee (1) have presented a much more rational view of tuberculosis.

Previous editions of Diagnostic Standards have ascribed many cases of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis to reinfection of a host already sensitized by a previous infection, a concept that has long been an anathema