every year in america there are more than one hundred thousand new cases of tuberculosis of all infectious diseases tuberculosis is still the greatest killer this film on tuberculosis that aspects of its diagnosis treatment and control in spite of the progress of preventive medicine in spite of public health programs on community state and national level tuberculosis still attacks almost as many americans today as ten years ago although the number of deaths from tuberculosis has been gradually falling off why for one thing industrialisation has spread faster than industrial health programs in some occupations there remains a hazard of infection poverty and it directs whether in back country or in cities slums contribute to the spread of tuberculosis ignorance or negligence as in this case or in this case and then there are war the greatest spreaders of tuberculosis the work of scientists alone cannot eliminate the deadly bacteria that cause tuberculosis it takes community action mary's arm shows no reaction however her test indicates that she has not been infected with tuberculosis soon afterwards married and comes to live with her she seems run down  victims that pass through nose and mouth into the trachea and on through the smaller passages deeper and deeper into the lung at their end in the deepest recesses of the lung the bronte i branch out into very however are killed by the bacilli then larger body defense cells come to the rescue by swallowing up smaller cells and the bacilli they contain has a job and is working working hard playing hard making every effort to keep slender she's having too little to eat she's getting too little rest and too much excitement  or it may come from spreading of a primary infection either by the breakdown of the primary pulmonary focus or of the lymph node focus either directly into the lung or in a roundabout way through the bloodstream or finally into the brown killed two birds with this charge of although at any time healing may again take place the disease part may grow and spread forming a larger and larger  the first of this series of x rays shows a small dark appearing cavity in the second the dark shaped area has grown noticeably larger and here it has reached the advanced stage of chronic ulcer it is of pulmonary tuberculosis for several months mary has tired easily and she's been losing weight steadily and she coughs very often spinster worry her and she finally decides to make an appointment with her physician mary's doctor soon detects signs that indicate tuberculosis he suggests that she go to a dirty loss clinic for further examination she takes a sample of sputum to the clinic then she  given another tuberculosis among other checkups an x ray picture of her lungs is my x rays are one of our best means of getting evidence when infection is present the report of the clinic goes back to mary's physician he explains to mary the findings of the clinic then he points out that x rays showed tuberculosis in her upper right lung the doctor tries not to alarm mary however he makes it clear that she will have to submit to a long treatment a treatment that will take her away from home to a divert ulysses hospital where she will get proper medicine proper food rest and possible surgery under the care of nurses and doctors mary is undergoing the standard treatment she is being trained in sanitary procedures like using coverings when she coughs and disposing of them into a receptacles which will be burn repair is a slow process but proper medicines good food and rest will work wonders even in the advanced stage of tuberculosis as in the case of the ants a number of different surgical procedures can be used either to help the long rest or to remove the damaged portion of the lung new drugs are constantly being developed to aid in the recovery of but even after the arrest and building up of strength in the hospital mary passes through a long stage of convalescence at home in an organized effort to help patients like mary public and private hospitals have been built all over the country mobile units like this one first school or community or for large factor regular check ups by a physician help discover infection before it spread we have mobilized against about kilos all the resources of modern science we are constantly building better and more efficient to only by checking in ever increasing numbers of citizens by going after tuberculosis before the disease spread can tuberculosis be conquered only if we fight it on a nationwide front can we achieve a lasting control over