Progress in the second and third years of patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis after a year of chemotherapy at home or in sanatorium, and influence of further chemotherapy on the relapse rate*
A controlled comparison by the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, of the merits of home as compared with sanatorium treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis showed that, at the end of a year of chemotherapy with isoniazid plus p-aminosalicylic acid (PAS), the response of the home patients closely approached that of the sanatorium patients. The present report reviews the progress of those patients in the controlled comparison whose disease had attained bacteriological quiescence by the end of the year of combined chemotherapy. During the second year, half of the patients received further chemotherapy, with isoniazid alone, and half received a placebo, calcium gluconate. During the third year, half of those who were treated with isoniazid in the second year and whose disease remained quiescent continued to receive that drug and all the remaining patients with quiescent disease received the placebo. In the second and third years all the patients were treated at home and administered the medicaments to themselves
