Tuberculosis epidemiological situation in the world and in Hungary (1882-1982).

The centenary of the discovery of the tuberc bacillus (Koch-centenary) threw light on the unsolved problems of the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the world. Despite of the definitively significant progress made since the turn of the century the world-wide elimination and eradication of tuberculosis is not yet accomplished. Deficiencies in the fight against tuberculosis in the developing countries which represent two-third of the world play firstly a role in it. The number of new tuberculosis cases keeps being about 5.000 yearly in Hungary thus the present programme requires modification. An increased fight against tuberculosis on a global scale may be successful only with international collaboration and with higher rate of financial support provided by the highly developed industrial countries.