The median age (the age at which half of the patients are younger, and half older) of tuberculosis patients in many industrialized countries has markedly increased over the past fifty years as this example from Finland shows.  This will have an effect on exposure risk in the population.

We cannot discuss descriptive epidemiology of exposure, because we have no tool to measure it.  However, this concept is of great importance, as it will have direct repercussions on the risk of becoming infected.  Before you continue, it is proposed that as a summary puzzle you write down how you think exposure risk in Finland was affected by this change in the age of patients.  While the next page gives you a possible solution, it is perhaps better for learning if you abstain from looking at it before you have written it down.

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