Another article in this issue of Pediatrics, "Assessment of Tuberculin Screening in an Urban Pediatric Clinic," (p 856) again focuses attention on a weighty question: Is routine use of the tuberculin test important? The authors have pointed out the difference in philosophy of the Center for Disease Control, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Center for Disease Control recommends that routine tuberculin testing for school children and other similar programs be abandoned if the yield of
positive tuberculin reactions is less than 1%1; this recommendation is based on the assumption that discovery of cases at this low rate will not have epidemiologic impact (italics added).
Tuberculosis Case-finding by Tuberculin-testing of Infant-school Children