Delegates to the NAPT Fourth Commonwealth Conference in 1955 heard Dr. P.V. Benjamin, Adviser in Tuberculosis to the Government of India, describe the problem of tuberculosis in the country and the measures, preventive and therapeutic, being made to control it. He estimated that there were in the region of 2,500,000 cases of tuberculosis causing some 500,000 deaths per year. These figures may be revised as a result of the national survey of the disease now being undertaken, but it is evident that the number of available beds - some 20,000 - is quite insufficient to offer in patient treatment to the majority of cases, and that in the field of treatment the only immediate and practicable approach is some form of mass domiciliary chemotherapy. The method of attack upon tuberculosis in under-developed countries has been much discussed, but little experience has been obtained in practice; moreover each country presents its own peculiar problems - and it was felt that, before embarking upon a nationwide scheme, further information should be obtained relevant to its use in India.

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