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COMPULSORY MASS X‐RAY SURVEYS: THE FUTURE

UNDER the Australian tuberculosis campaign, case detection has been keyed to the nation-wide compulsory mass X-ray survey. There is no reason to doubt the claim that the surveys have been the secret of the campaign's success, despite the concurrent use of most other methods of case finding. Properly conducted, the surveys detect the patient with infectious active disease, and the patient with early or potentially active disease, and they also sieve out of the population those with pulmonary lesions who need special observation for the future. Surveys at regular intervals also prevent the build-up of a chronic infector pool. Boag, in a paper read at the Fifth Clinical Tuberculosis Conference in Perth and published on page 74 of this issue, traces the history of the compulsory mass X-ray surveys in Australia. Though the time of introduction varied in the various States, statistical evidence suggests that this coincided with rapid improvement in the situation in each case. The introduction period varies from 20 to eight years ago, and during this time, an estimated 29,000,000 attendances have been registered.