Tuesday 5 April 2011

TUBERCULOSIS: U.S. Cases of Drop, But Not Fast Enough

Patrick Corcoran: March 28, 2011
Federal authorities say reported cases of tuberculosis in the U.S. dropped to an all-time low in 2010.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the total fell 3.9 percent, to 11,181 cases.
However, the figures disappointed some experts. The 3.9 percent decline paled next to the 11.9 percent drop in 2009, and, more than 20 years ago, 2010 had been set as a target year for the eradication of TB in the U.S.
Four states accounted for 49 percent of the cases: Florida, New York, California and Texas. Among patients whose nationality was reported, 60.5 percent were foreign-born, with natives of Mexico accounting for the most cases in that category, followed by the Philippines, India and Vietnam.
The release of the U.S. numbers came as international efforts are intensifying to crack down on multi-drug-resistant TB, or MDR TB. The Stop TB Partnership, an international coalition, recently announced that without expanded efforts, the number of people inflected with MDR TB could swell to 2 million worldwide by 2015, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths.
In the U.S., there were 113 cases of MDR TB in 2009, the most recent year for which complete data are available
http://www.fairwarning.org/2011/03/u-s-cases-of-tuberculosis-drop-but-not-fast-enough-for-some/

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