Tuberculosis Still a Threat, Health Officials Say
March 23, 2005
While many people think of tuberculosis as a thing of the past, it's still a threat that should not be taken lightly, a state health official said Wednesday.
"Fifteen Montanans were diagnosed with TB last year, including one who died," said Denise Ingman, manager of the tuberculosis program of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. "We're especially concerned that one of those cases involved a child, which means the disease was transmitted very recently. It wasn't a latent infection that only now flared up."
To combat TB, Montana public health officials have joined forces with colleagues in Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah to develop regional strategies to address the contagious and potentially deadly disease. The four states are collaborating to increase education and training efforts, enhance laboratory services, provide expert consultation for clinicians, and develop policy manuals for local health departments and a regional TB elimination plan.
Ingman noted that Montana has a TB infection rate well below the national average. About 1.6 of every 100,000 Montanans gets TB, she said, compared to 4.9 people nationwide.
"We've made a lot of progress," she said, "but TB poses greater challenges today than ever before."
The increase in global travel plays a significant role in the spread of TB. More than half of recent U.S. cases were in foreign-born individuals, Ingman said
"This reflects the global magnitude of TB, where it has reached epidemic levels, particularly in resource-poor countries that are unable to effectively combat the disease."
Tuberculosis is primarily an illness of the respiratory system and is spread by coughing and sneezing. It can usually be treated successfully with medications, but each year about 2 million people die from it worldwide. If people with TB do not complete a minimum of six to nine months of drug therapy, they can develop and spread strains of TB that are resistant to available drugs, Ingman said.
March 24 has been designated World Tuberculosis Day by the World Health Organization (WHO). On this day in 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the TB bacteria.
In the late 19th century, TB killed one of every seven people living in the United States and Europe. Today, the United States is seeing an all-time low in the number of new cases.
Provisional 2004 data indicate there were 14,511 cases of active TB reported in the United States-a 3 percent decrease from 2003. While the 2004 TB rate was the lowest in the U.S. since national reporting began in 1953, the declines for 2003 and 2004 were the smallest since 1993.
Ingman said national funding is needed to sustain research into the development of an effective vaccine for TB and to develop a better diagnostic tool to screen for latent TB infections, which do not produce symptoms.
Page last updated: 06/15/2006
