The 90-percent increase in the white civilian population of Alaska between 1939 and 1950 was largely due to the entry of employable adults and their children into the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas. Since many of these newer residents, as well as some of the older ones, return to the States for medical care, especially when extended hospitalization is involved, tuberculosis mortality statistics are of little value with respect to this group. Rejecting mortality statistics as an index of prevalence leaves two practical measures: mass X-ray survey results and tuberculin sensitivity data. Although records of both are available, the latter provide greater coverage numerically and geographically. They are a byproduct of an extensive BCG program of the Alaska Department of Health. Since age-specific tuberculin sensitivity rates are among the most useful measures of the prevalence of infection, the results of tuberculin tests have been tabulated and analyzed for specific racial groups in designated geographical areas in order to achieve a preliminary definition of the tuberculosis problem.
Notes
From: Fortuine, Robert et al. 1993. The Health of the Inuit of North America: A Bibliography from the Earliest Times through 1990. University of Alaska Anchorage. Citation number 1777.
Cited in: Fortuine, Robert. 1968. The Health of the Eskimos: a bibliography 1857-1967. Dartmouth College Libraries. Citation number 636.