Tuberculosis

Successful global TB control must address highly mobile populations, such as persons who are being deported, and requires multi-agency collaborations and support including partners outside the public health field.

A 2006 national shortage of anti-tuberculosis (TB) medications in Honduras provided a unique opportunity for the strengthening of transnational TB control partnerships. The Division of Immigration Health Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local and state public health authorities in the U.S., TBNet, and the Honduras National TB Program coordinated special efforts to facilitate completion of treatment for TB disease in persons deported during treatment.

The public debacle of a person traveling with a contagious and possibly deadly disease through the international transportation system raises many questions, most of them unanswered.

Mr. Speaker, the patient in question, violated medical advice to not travel, to get to his wedding in Greece. He accomplished his goal, and now he denies that anyone gave him a warning. His denial comes at the heels of a confirmatory letter telling him to not travel.

Tuesday, MAY 29, 2007, 2:00 p.m.

DR. JULIE DR. GERBERDING, DIRECTOR, CDC: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for this press conference. I'm here today to describe a situation that has involved many public health officials from around the world who acted together to protect people's health in a circumstance where an individual with drug resistant tuberculosis may have served as a source of exposure.

Speaker, the patient with Drug Resistant TB, who was airborne for a lengthy plane ride(s), can not claim ignorance to what he did.

A Dicken's like twist presented itself today when Speaker's father-in-law admitted to being a TB Researcher for the CDC.

"I'm a research microbiologist in CDC's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, and my work does involve working with a wide range of organisms, including TB," said Dr. Cooksey in a statement. "As a research microbiologist, my laboratory work involves identifying the characteristics and features of bacteria.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with a number of international, state, and local partners on an investigation involving a U.S. citizen recently diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). XDR TB has been recently defined as a subtype of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) with additional resistance to the two most important second-line antibiotics (i.e., a fluoroquinolone and an injectable agent [amikacin, kanamycin, or capreomycin]) in addition to the two most important first-line drugs (i.e., isoniazid and rifampin).

Introduction: A Terrible Toll

Tuberculosis (TB) is an old disease but one that still ranks among the foremost killers of the 21st century. Every second of every day, someone is newly infected with the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb ), that causes TB. About one-third of the world’s population is infected with M. tb , and as many as two million people die of the disease each year. TB kills more people than any other disease caused by a single infectious agent. Among people with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death. The highest rates of TB are in some of the world’s poorest countries, and the economic toll taken by the disease is enormous. Left unchecked, infectious disease can sow the seeds of political upheaval and threatens to reverse progress made by developing countries in recent decades. As for the toll in lives shortened, children orphaned, and communities weakened, the cost is inestimable.

World TB Day
March 24, 2007

Statement of

Christine F. Sizemore, Ph.D., Barbara E. Laughon, Ph.D. and
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health

On March 24, 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). Dr. Koch’s remarkable scientific achievement was the first step toward developing tools to control the disease. We at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) acknowledge the accomplishments of researchers, physicians and public health workers who have battled TB throughout history. At the same time, we renew our collective commitment to develop new TB interventions and defeat a scourge that remains one of the greatest threats to human health.

RESEARCH

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) leads TB research at the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports not only studies to better understand how M. tuberculosis infects and causes disease in humans but also how the human immune system responds to it. This research will help to develop new tools to diagnose TB and to find better vaccines and new medicines against TB. Below are some important advances that have been made in TB research.

Tuberculosis in the African-American Community

Disparities in tuberculosis (TB) persist among members of racial and ethnic minority populations. In 2005, the majority (82%) of all reported TB cases in the United States (US) occurred in racial and ethnic minorities. Black, non-Hispanic persons, have a disproportionate share of TB in the US.

In 2005, TB was reported in 3,927 black, non-Hispanic persons, 28% of all persons reported with TB nationally. In 2005, the rate of TB in black, non-Hispanic persons was 10.8 cases per 100,000 population, which is more than 8 times higher than the rate of TB in white, non-Hispanic persons (1.3 cases per 100,000 population).

ATLANTA - Health officials said Thursday they are seeing what appears to be a disturbing increase around the world in tuberculosis infections resistant to both the first- and second-line antibiotics used against TB.