Comparative skin testing the Cuna Indians of Panama

A group of 119 Cuna Indians from the San Blas Islands of Panama were skin tested with a standard tuberculin (RT-23) and three antigens prepared from atypical mycobacteria (M. intracellulare, PDB-B; M. kansasii, PPD-K; and M. xenopi, PPD-X). There was a high level of skin sensitivity to PPD-X and PPD-K and significantly less to PPD-B. The results are contrasted to those obtained in a similar study of workers from mainland Panama.