[Prognosis and treatment of tuberculosis in the pre-chemotherapeutical era]

After discovery of the agent, treatment of tuberculosis was carried out in a variety of ways, the main forms of approach including: 1. Direct action on the bacterium-failed. 2. Influencing the organism by rest and irradiation therapy. 3. Surgical intervention for cavity destruction. 4. Improvement of social conditions. Before surgical intervention was practiced on a large scale prospects for bacteria-excreting patients were very poor, two thirds of them dying within the first 3 years. Where de-bacillization was successful, more than 75 per cent of patients survived 10 years. Nevertheless, none of the forms of treatment had any decisive influence on the tuberculosis situation as a whole.