In the formulation and evolution of a National Tuberculosis Programme some assumptions are made which require to be tested under the normal administrative set up with minimum interference by the investigating team. The objectives of the study were to understand some operational aspects of Case-finding in the Peripheral Health Institutions (PHIs) in an integrated programme. First, what is the frequency of persons showing symptoms suggestive of pulmonary tuberculosis among the normal out patients attendance (OPA), how many cases can be found by direct microscopy of sputum of those symptomatics, what will be the workload of TB Case-finding at a PHI and, what proportion of symptomatics will be willing to and will actually attend the District TB Centre (DTC) when referred there for X-ray examination. The study was conducted in a district with a population of 1.5 million having one DTC and 55 PHIs. 15 PHIs were selected on the basis of stratified random sampling. At each PHI an National Tuberculosis Institute (NTI) investigator worked for a period of one month. All new out patients were questioned for symptoms (non- suggestive and suggestive) and any patient with chest symptoms mainly cough for more than one week fever, chest pain and haemoptysis was subjected to a sputum examination and also referred for X-ray examination at the DTC.

It was found that 381 (2.5%) of the 14881 total new out patients of all age groups complained of cough for 2 weeks and more. From these chest symptomatics, 11% were new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. When the symptomatics were referred for X-ray examination, although 66% agreed to go for X-ray to DTC but only 16% (of the total referred) actually went for X-ray. Each PHI had to examine only one or two sputum specimens per working day. As the study was conducted in a representative sample of PHIs for a representative duration of time, the material permits the estimation of the potential yield of cases in a District TB Programme (DTP) during a period of time (say one year). It was estimated that about 45% of the total estimated prevalence cases in a district can be diagnosed in a DTP during a period of one year, if all PHIs function according to the programme recommendations. The workload due to tuberculosis Case-finding is small and can be managed with the existing staff and Case-finding by direct smear examination of sputum at the PHI has to be relied upon.

The paper presents some aspects of domiciliary management of tuberculosis patients in a District Tuberculosis Programme (DTP) viz., the interval between diagnosis and initiation of treatment, regularity in collection of drugs, role of motivation of patients for collection of drugs and pattern of defaulter retrieval actions by health institutions. The treatment cards of 3089 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis belonging to Bangalore DTP diagnosed during 1964 were analysed. The cohort of 2479 patients was divided into 3 groups according to the place of treatment, viz., (i) those treated at District Tuberculosis Centre (DTC) where better trained staff motivated tuberculosis patients & took defaulter actions (ii) the Urban Peripheral Health Institutions (UPHIs) where motivation and defaulter actions were taken by specialised staff and (iii) rural PHIs where non- specialised general health workers along with general duties did motivation and took defaulter actions.

The study has shown that in the entire district about 94% of patients were put on treatment within 10 days of diagnosis. In rural PHIs, among 14.5% of patients the treatment was started after 10 days of diagnosis. For the 149 initial defaulter patients, actions were taken only for 39% of the patients, lowest being in rural PHIs (10.8%). The defaulter actions for 69% were taken in time, more promptly by DTC staff for DTC & UPHI i.e. 71.5%, whereas rural PHIs were poor in this respect and only 37.5% of the actions were taken on time. Sputum positive cases collected drugs more often than sputum negative and also more patients collected drugs on due dates at DTC in comparison with PHIs. Both the differences were statistically significant.

About one third of the lost patients came from those who made the first default. About 55-63% and 75-82% of this group defaulted by the second and third collections respectively. Defaulter actions were not taken by rural PHIs for 66.7 to 72.5% defaults, while DTC staff had not taken defaulter action for about 20% of defaulters and 67.8% of such actions were prompt in DTC, whereas it was only 19.3% in rural PHIs.

A study was carried out in Bangalore city corporation area with the following objectives; when BCG vaccination is administered simultaneously with primary smallpox vaccination to infants; (i) whether any immunological interferences take place as indicated by the development of vaccination lesion and post-vaccination allergy due to BCG vaccination and the development of the local lesion (take rate) of smallpox vaccination; (ii) whether the incidence of complications are higher among those simultaneously vaccinated and, (iii) whether the population will accept a procedure involving two vaccinations. BCG technicians and the smallpox vaccinators registered all the eligible children after house to house visit and randomly allocated to three groups. A total of 789 children aged below one year were admitted to the study. While 315 were vaccinated simultaneously with BCG and smallpox vaccines (BCG on the right arm and smallpox on the left), 255 were vaccinated with smallpox vaccine only and 219 with BCG vaccine. All 789 children were followed up on the 5th, 21st, 90th and 93rd day of vaccination. The 5th and 21st day followups were to study the development and healing of smallpox vaccination lesions, whereas the 21st, 90th and 93rd day followups were for BCG vaccination lesions. The 90th and 93rd followups were for tuberculin testing and reading.

It was found that there was no evidence of immunological interference between the two vaccines when administered simultaneously i.e., the development of lesion of smallpox vaccination among the simultaneously vaccinated group was similar to the development of the smallpox vaccination lesion among the only smallpox vaccinated group and, the post-vaccination allergy due to BCG among the simultaneously vaccinated group was similar to the post-vaccination allergy among the only BCG vaccinated group. The complications due to vaccinations were very few and similar among the simultaneously vaccinated as compared to the other respective groups. The acceptability of simultaneous vaccination was higher than BCG alone. The above study has demonstrated that BCG and smallpox vaccinations can be administered simultaneously.