A study was undertaken in Bangalore city, Karnataka, to find out whether people with chest symptoms, including tuberculosis patients, attend General Health Institutions or report directly to tuberculosis clinics. The objective was to investigate the proportion of persons with chest symptoms (cough, fever, pain in chest and haemoptysis) among out patients attending the general city dispensaries, and the proportion of pulmonary tuberculosis cases among them. The findings of this study are based on examination of one day's attendance at each of the 19 general dispensaries of Bangalore city, consisting of 2,506 persons aged 10 years or more who had attended the dispensaries for the relief of any ailment. The investigation consisted of symptom questioning, examination of spot sputum sample and 70 mm chest photofluorogram. Sputum specimens were examined by direct smear and culture. Study intake period of 19 days was spread over three months.

The study showed that of the 2506 out patients, 1170 (47%) had visited dispensaries primarily for relief of chest symptoms. Of these, 31 (2%) had evidence of active or probably active pulmonary tuberculosis and 20 (0.8%) were sputum positive cases. It is concluded that even though there are special tuberculosis institutions in the city, a fair number of new and old tuberculosis patients contact general dispensaries. These dispensaries can therefore contribute considerably to tuberculosis case-finding in the city.