TUBERCULOUS ENDOGENOUS REINFECTION: Twenty Year Follow-Up Study of Reactors After Removal from Contact

THE DATA presented here complete a twenty year observation, material from the first twelve years of which is recorded elsewhere. 1 The subjects were wards of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Detroit, an agency providing foster homes for dependent children. The Henry Ford Hospital serves as an admitting home for these children on their removal from their own homes, and their general examination includes skin testing and roentgenographic study of reactors. Since the occasion for dependency was in many cases the institutionalization of the parents for tuberculosis, a unique opportunity was offered for following the course of first infections in a fresh environment over a significantly long period of time. During the first ten years of the study regular visitation of the homes was made by nurses and the reactors returned for examination at intervals of six months. In the second ten years, this was not possible