Influence of rest, movement and work in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis under chemotherapy

Sen, P.K. and Chatterjee, B. (1961) Influence of rest, movement and work in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis under chemotherapy. Indian Journal of Tuberculosis, 8 (3). pp. 106-113.

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Abstract

1. An attempt has been made to determine the influence of rest, movement and work in cases under domiciliary chemotherapy. 2. Two thousand two hundred seventy-two cases of a special unit of the chest department, Medical College Hospitals, Calcutta, were investigated. No case was accepted who had less than 3 months chemotherapy. 3. The cases were classified into 3 groups according to rest and movement from the start of treatment: ‘W1’ (rested), ‘W2’ (moved and worked moderately), ‘W3’ (did full time work not involving heavy manual labour). 4. The groups were generally comparable in social, environmental and financial status. 5. Comparative study of the groups with regard to duration of chemotherapy (INH & PAS), extent of the lesions, cavitary lesions and sputum status showed that ‘W3’ group is somewhat worse in all these regards. 6. Comparative study of the result of treatment showed that the ‘ W2’ group fared as well as ‘W1’ or even slightly better whereas ‘W3’ was slightly worse. The latter may well be due to accumulation of more serious cases in this group. 7. In view of these findings it may be accepted that work and movement, even at the initial stage of the treatment, is not harmful for an average case. But for more serious cases full time work may not be quite safe.

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