Vernon N. Houk

SPREAD OF TUBERCULOSIS VIA RECIRCULATED AIR IN A NAVAL VESSEL: THE BYRD STUDY

The Greek physician Hippocrates was the first to offer a clear description of tuberculosis, and in the fifth century B.c., Isocrates suggested that tuberculosis was transmitted from person to person. However, there was no tangible evidence of a means of transmission, and so interest in this theory declined. Then, in 1882, Robert Koch’s discovery of the tubercle bacillus reawakened speculation about the communicability of tuberculosis. The mechanism of infection with Mycobocterium tuberculosis became a subject of serious and, at times, intensive investigation. By 1966, these investigations had led to the generally held theory that tuberculosis infection was acquired from the inhalation of the tubercle bacillus in a droplet-nucleus form. It was at this time that we were suddenly presented with an excellent opportunity to test this theory and shed more light on the epidemiology of tuberculosis infection.