Thread: 4 States Account for 49.2% of TB Cases in USA

http://health.usnews.com/articles/healt ... -rate.html

TB Still Declining in U.S., But at Slower Rate
CDC analysis finds almost half of all cases last year in 4 states
Posted March 19, 2009

THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Tuberculosis cases reached an all-time low rate in the United States last year, according to a new federal government report.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 12,898 new cases of TB in 2008, which equals 4.2 cases per 100,000 people.

However, the CDC report also noted that progress in eliminating tuberculosis has slowed in recent years, with a 3.8 percent average annual rate of decline between 2000 and 2008, compared with a 7.3 percent rate of decline from 1993 to 2000.

In 2008, TB rates ranged from 0.5 per 100,000 in North Dakota to 9.6 per 100,000 in Hawaii, the study said. Although 33 states and the District of Columbia reported lower rates in 2008 than in 2007, 17 states had higher rates.

Four states -- California, Florida, New York and Texas -- reported more than 500 TB cases each in 2008. Combined, these four states accounted for 49.2 percent of all TB cases in the country last year. In 2007, five states had at least 500 cases, and seven states recorded that many in 2006.

People from racial and ethnic minorities and foreign-born residents continue to be disproportionately affected by TB, the CDC said. Rates among Hispanics, blacks and Asians were 7.5, 8.1 and 23.4 times higher, respectively, than among whites in 2008. The TB rate among foreign-born residents was 20.2 cases per 100,000, which is 10 times higher than the two cases per 100,000 among people born in the United States.

The analysis of 2008 data also showed that among the 7,652 people with TB who have a known HIV test result, slightly more than 10 percent were confirmed to have HIV.

In addition, the report found that a type of TB that is resistant to at least two important first-line drugs -- isoniazid and rifampin -- accounted for 1.2 percent (125) of all TB cases in the United States for which drug-susceptibility data were available.

The findings, which came from analysis of data from the National TB Surveillance System, were published in the March 20 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC.

The authors of the report said that more action is needed to tackle the slowing decline in TB rates and the continuing disparities between minorities and whites and between people born in the United States and those born elsewhere.

Tuberculosis cases had declined steadily in the United States in the three decades from 1953, when there were 84,304 reported cases, to 1985, with 22,201 cases. But the number of cases rose again, by 20 percent, between 1985 and 1992, when 26,673 cases were reported. This led to renewed TB prevention and control efforts during the 1990s, but the average annual decline has slowed since 2000.

Worldwide, about 2 billion people are infected with TB-causing bacteria. In 2006, about 9.2 million people became ill from TB and 1.7 million died from the disease. March 24 is World TB Day.

TB is an airborne disease. If you are coughing constantly get checked. I had a friend whose children couldn't take the shots but had TB in their blood testing. In public school exposed to immigrant students and their parents possible caused this for these children? I pray daily as my children go into the world of crooks.

Here is a related story from today's newspaper:
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/285542
TB rates fall; some strains worrisome
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.23.2009
SAN FRANCISCO — Even as tuberculosis rates decline in the United States, drug-resistant strains of the disease showing up in states with large immigrant populations are becoming increasingly hard to treat.
Researchers are concerned about this trend while funding for labor-intensive disease-control programs is being cut in cities such as San Francisco, which has the highest TB rates in the country.
Drug resistance develops when patients start feeling better and interrupt their treatment, giving bacteria an opportunity to develop a defense against the medication.
The picture is grim, and World TB Day on Tuesday is an attempt to raise awareness of a disease that infects about 9 million people, particularly in Asia and Africa. About 5 percent of those patients are immune to the best drugs. About 2 million die annually.
Immigrant communities in states such as California are particularly vulnerable because many people are foreign-born or travel frequently to countries where TB is a greater risk, such as Mexico, India and China.
California leads the nation with 2,696 recorded TB cases in 2008 — and with 451 cases of drug-resistant TB identified between 1993 and 2007. About 83 percent of these drug-resistant cases involve immigrants born abroad.
Patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis do not respond to the most commonly used antibiotics. Of even greater concern is extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is even more resistant to an even greater number of drugs, making treatment extremely difficult.

Related thread:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-150797.html

BigTex, please read the below listed link, thanks:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-56455.html

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

TB is an airborne disease. If you are coughing constantly get checked. I had a friend whose children couldn't take the shots but had TB in their blood testing. In public school exposed to immigrant students and their parents possible caused this for these children? I pray daily as my children go into the world of crooks.

I don't think Airborne would appreciate that comment

TB is another reason we can't give amnesty. We have NO idea what diseases they have. One of the scariest is Morgelluns. Many reports in Mexico and South Texas.

Moving to other topic's