When Mantoux published the intradermal technique, he also presented the results of a tuberculin survey among children from Paris, examined with that technique.

Tuberculin reactivity increased rapidly with age.  By the age of 5 years, half of the children were already infected with M. tuberculosis.  By the age of 11 years, the prevalence of infection was above 80%.   At that time, there was little chance to escape infection by the time a person entered adulthood.

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