A Study of the Types of Tubercle Bacilli Found in Human Tuberculosis in Alaska

T UBERCULOSIS is the major health problem in Alaska. Table 1 (Alaska's Health, 1955) compares active tuberculosis newly reported per 100,000 population in the United States and its Territories for 1954. The records of the Division of Tuberculosis Control, Alaska Department of Health, prior to 1954 do not contain a breakdown of bone and joint, pulmonary, and other forms of tuberculosis. During 1954 a total of 760 new cases were reported, and 40 of these were extrapulmonary. There were 20 meningitis, 10 bone and joint, 2 genito-urinary, 2 pericarditis, 1 peritonitis, and 5 unclassified (throat). A case with extrapulmonary and pulmonary disease was recorded as one, but as pulmonary tuberculosis. Weiss (1953) shows that the majority of the cases are among Eskimo, Aleuts, and Indians living in the outlying areas. Aboriginal health problems in Alaska are those of a people who maintain their primitive culture and who have never known high standards of living, or high quality health services. The high rates of skeletal tub'erculosis due to human type tubercle bacillus are the results of contact with highly infectious cases of pulmonary disease in iso'lated communities.