isease (COPD), and tuberculosis. A comparison by Rhodes of mortality and hospitalization rates of these diseases with the rest of the United States population and between Indian groups in the various Indian Health Service Areas, indicated that pneumonia and tuberculosis were the most significant causes of death and disability for Indians, more so than either COPD or cancer of the lung. Thus tuberculosis is a high priority health concern for the selected aggregate and the scope of the problem is serious.
B. Natural History with Epidemiology
1. Stages of the Disease - Tuberculosis (TB), a chronic bacterial infection, causes more deaths worldwide than any other infectious disease. TB is spread through the air and usually infects the lungs, although other organs are sometimes involved (Stead, 1987). Some 1.7 billion people - one-third of the world's population - are infected with the predominant TB organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and each year, approximately eight million people worldwide develop active TB and t
...