Epidemiological basis of tuberculosis eradication. 11. Mortality among tuberculosis cases and the general population of Greenland.

Greenland experienced, during the 1950s, a decline in mortality such as is on record for hardly any other place in the world: from 24 per 1 000 in 1951 to 8 per 1 000 in 1960, a decline of more than 10% per year. Deaths from tuberculosis were especially reduced. Whereas more than one-third of all deaths in 1951 were considered to be due to this disease, practically no deaths are ascribed to it today.This rapid improvement in the health situation in Greenland, which coincides with a large-scale development programme, is documented in detail in the present paper. The study is based partly on official mortality statistics and partly on a 9-year follow-up study of mortality and of morbidity from tuberculosis in the total population of West Greenland registered in 1955. The existence of such data for a developing area is probably unique.