A study was conducted in a slum area of Bangalore, to get information on the prevalence of all forms of tuberculosis in 0-4 year age group, respiratory tuberculosis in 5-14 year age group and the proportion of respiratory tuberculosis among total respiratory diseases in 0-14 year age group. Entire population in a slum area was investigated. Children aged 0-9 years were given tuberculin test and their nutritional status assessed. All persons were X-rayed. Sputum specimens were collected from those having radiological abnormality in chest, chest symptoms of one week or more in 0-4 years, in addition from those with any kind of sickness, malnutrition and tuberculin reactors.

In 0-9 year age group, 5.5% were tuberculin positive (without BCG lesions), in 0-4 years, 1.8% and 5-9 years, 11.3%. Among the X-rayed children, 47.4% had some kind of sickness, the proportion being significantly high in 0-4 year age group. The respiratory sickness is the commonest among children of all ages followed by malnutrition (21%). Among children with chest symptoms, upper respiratory infections were 33%. Chest X-ray abnormalities were present in 4.5% of children and of these 82.5% had non-specific pneumonitis. Of 71 persons with respiratory disease, about 7% were tuberculous. Out of 1408 children, only 5 had active primary tuberculosis, giving a prevalence of 0.35%. None in 0-4 year age had sputum positive disease or extra pulmonary tuberculosis.

It has been highlighted that non-tuberculous chest diseases are common in pediatric age group and many of these may be wrongly classified as active tuberculous in practice. It is concluded that tuberculosis in the pediatric age group in this community is not a serious public health problem.

The findings of the two follow-ups conducted passively, in a slum area of Bangalore city, each at an interval of one year, are presented here. The objectives of the follow-ups were to study the migration, episodes of sickness and health status of sick people of initial survey over a period of time in the pediatric age group. The information was collected by two ways: (1) by visiting each house to collect information on sickness among them during the preceding year as per the questionnaire. (2) Going through the records of the Area Health Centre about various morbidities among the residents of the area pertaining to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment during any year noted.

Migration had occurred upto 7% in 0-9 year age group within first year and no migration during second year in 0-4 year age group. Out of 400 children belonging to 0-14 years, had symptoms related to respiratory system. In all, 5 children were diagnosed as case of active primary tuberculosis, non-e died in two years and one had persistent respiratory symptoms. Hospital records showed that only 1 out of 5 had attended any health facility with respiratory symptoms. The usefulness of passive follow-up without clinical investigations as a tool, needs to be reviewed. Most of the symptomatics do not go to hospital. Diagnosis cannot be arrived at by passive follow-up. It may be necessary to decrease the interval of follow-ups if it is desired to get precise idea on frequency of episodes of sickness, as most of the sicknesses are forgotten by the population with passage of time.

Prevalence of tuberculous infection in young children is an important surveillance measure. However, the hypersensitivity may be depressed by malnutrition and thus interfere with the interpretation of tuberculin test leading to underestimation of the infection rate. Objective of this investigation was to study the relationship between tuberculin reaction with 1 TU RT 23 and nutritional status of children. The study was carried out in 1974 among children aged 1-9 years of age living in an urban slum area of Bangalore city and who were not given BCG vaccination.

Of the 1151 registered children aged 0-9 years, 482 in the age group 1-4 and 526 in 5-9 years formed the study group. Of these 1008 children, 980 had both clinical evaluation and anthropometric measurement for nutritional status and 963 had both tuberculin test readings and anthropometric measurements carried out for them. Of the 482 children aged 1-4 years, 230 were classified as suffering from Protein Calorie Malnutrition (PCM) and of the 498 in the 5-9 years of age, 227 were classified as suffering from PCM. Distribution of tuberculin test indurations in mm among the normals and the undernourished were compared; no significant difference in the mean size of tuberculin indurations as well as in the distributions of these indurations was observed, regardless of the method used for arriving at the classification.