The tuberculin test is the simplest and the best method at hand for determining
whether a host has been infected with tuberculin bacilli the test is important before
vaccination in order to rule out previous virulent infection, therefore almost of these
investigations were conducted prior to vaccination under the close cooperation with the
United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency tron January, 1952.
The old tuberculin routinely used in these investigations were prepared by the
National Institute of Health, Seoul, Korea and the Japan Antituberculosis Association as
follow.
Through the investigation the reading method initiated by prof. T. Toda in Japan was
employed.
Following results were obtained from the investigation conducted over 559,440 pupils
who were injected with 2,000:1 O.T.(5T.U., Old tuberculin) from 1948 to 1959 in Korea.
1) Of the institutions investigated, the prison showed the highest pre-vaccination
tuberculin positive rate(96.06%) and institutions which are lived in collectivelly showed
higher percent than other groups.
i.e. Mine>College>Spinnery>Army etc
2) By province, Seoul special city showed the highest pre-vaccination tuberculin rate
in primary schools(53.27%), and provinces that surround Seoul city showed next to the
highest for examlpe.
Chung chong Book Kang Won Do are higher than others, and
Kyung Sang Book Do was the lowest in the rate(33.99%).
3) By cities and towns, Masan showed the highest pre-vaccination tuberculin rate in
primary schools(54.31%).
Several samatorium are located in the city of Masan.
Cities and towns which have not been rehabilitated completely from the damages
brought by the Korean war, (for example, Chun>Chon>Seoul>Youg Wol>In Chon etc)
are higher than others. And Ook-Koo is the lowest(33.34%) in the rate.
4) Pre-vaccination tuberculin positive rate by school years in Seoul primary school
was the highest at sixth class, and with an increase of one school year, it steps up at
3-4%. And every higher age groups in years showed higher percent than lower age
groups.
5) By school years, refugee primary schools in six large cities showed about 11.0
percent higher pre-vaccination tuberculin positive rate than indigenous schools, and
while in an indigeneous school, the rate increases at 3% with an increase of one school
year, it dose at 4% in a refugee school.
6) By age refugee schools showed about 10 percent higher rate than indigenous school
in the same age group, and the rate increases with age.
7) Tuberculin positive rates averaged 38.68% in kindergartion, 47.76% in orphanage
and 38.54% in the refugee camp.
8) Tuberculin positive rates averaged 65.93% in middle school, 75.14% in high school.
The refugee middle and high schools and high school showed 7.96% and 5.34%
respectively higher rate than the indigenous middle schools and high schools. This
indicates that the younger their age are, the more different there is corresponding of the
rates between the group of refugee students and that of the indigenous students, of the
same age. i.e. primary school>middle school>high school(11.04%:7.96%:5.34%)
9) Younger age groups in years showed higher tuberculin positive rate than older age
groups.
10) There are no specific differences in the percentage of the tuberculin positive rate
between male and female.
11) 10-20% of the age groups under 30 showed weaker positive in tuberculin reaction.
However among the strong positive groups, under the 15 years age showed 25-30
positive. After 15 years of age the perceentage rate increases with increasing age and at
30 years of age, the positive rate reached 54%.
12) Refugee primary schools in whole country showed higher tuberculin positive
rate(about 3.91%) than Seoul primary schools and about 11-12% higher than indigenous
primary schools.
13) All alike in the kindergarten, orphanage, primary school, middle school and college,
the tuberculin positive rate increased after the Korean war.
14) Children in contact groups showed higher tuberculin positive rate than non contact
groups i.e. about 30.3% higher at 6 months after birth, and at one year showed
tuberculin positive ratio 43.5%;5.1% between these two groups. And the differences of
the ratio between these two groups decrease with increasing age.
15) No yearly changes in tuberculin positive rate have been observed during the
period of 1949, 1952 and 1953. From 1954, the rate tended to increase, although it didn´t
necessarily step up with regularity.
16) Through out the country, older age groups showed higher tuberculin positive rate
than younger age groups, and the rate was about 32% at the 0-4 age groups.
17) Through the comparison between korean old tuberculin and Japanese old
tuberculin, old tuberculin and Japanese old tuberculin, which were used in 1952, the
following results were observed.
① Korean O.T. showed higher tuberculin positive rate than Japanese O.T.(i.e. 1.62:1.0)
② As to the degree of tuberculin positive, korean O.T. showed higher percent in the
strongest positive(++++) over Japanese O.T., while Japanese O.T. showed slightly higher
percent in moderate positive(++) and strong positive(+++) than Korean O.T.
③ As to the time of reading after the tuberculin injection, no material diggerences of
the results between 48hrs reading and 72hrs reading were observed. However after
48hrs reading showed slightly higher positive rate than after 72hrs reading.
④ The results of comparative study on Korean O.T., Japanese O.T. and Patch test
indicated that Korean O.T. showed slightly higher rate than Japanese O.T. and Patch
test.
18) Blister and necrosis were observed after injection with either Korean. O.T. or
Japanese O.T. as follows without any other complications.
19) Among the negative reactions to 1:2,000 dilution tuberculin, 3.7% showed doubtful
positive and 4.5% showed definite positive with 1:500 dilution tuberculin.
20) Korean O.T. are equally as strong as the standard O.T., and Japanese O.T., and
P.P.D.-S.(standard P.P.D.) are weaker than standard O.T.(about 1/2×standard O.T.),
RT22(Danish P.P.D.)is much weaker than standard O.T.(about 1/4×standard O.T.) on
the BCG vaccinated guinea pigs.
21) The results of tuberculin testing in Korea which was carried out in 1952 showed
all positive in pre-vaccination tuberculin reaction. In is believed that the natural infection
rate of tuberculosis in this country could be estimated with these date herein presented.
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