Drug-Resistant Cases Of TB in U.S. Increase

The Washington Post ^ | March 24, 2006 | David Brown

[neverdem]

The number of cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is increasing in the United States, as is the fraction of those cases that is resistant to at least five antimicrobial drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there were 128 cases of multidrug-resistant TB in the United States in 2004, up from 113 the year before. This is the first increase in a decade.

In addition, the proportion of hard-to-treat cases that are "extensively drug resistant" rose from 3.9 percent in the 1993-1996 period to 4.5 percent during 2001-2004.

"It is a modest increase, but it is a movement in the wrong direction," said Kenneth G. Castro, an assistant surgeon general and director of the tuberculosis program at the CDC, which released the data.

These findings appear to be driven by the growth of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB overseas and in recent immigrants to the United States. .

Of the 2005 cases, 45 percent were in U.S.-born people, and the balance in foreign-born people. The most frequent native countries of the latter group were Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and China.

Overall, tuberculosis continues to decline in this country. The per-capita rate of the lung infection last year was the lowest since the government began collecting data in 1953. There were slightly more than 14,000 cases reported to health authorities, compared with about 24,000 a decade earlier.

The incidence of TB has fallen steadily since 1993, when a seven-year rise of the disease finally got the attention of public health authorities who had considered it virtually eliminated.

That resurgence was marked by outbreaks of multidrug-resistant infections, particularly among prisoners. Castro said he and other officials hope the slight uptick in MDR cases now is not the harbinger of a new phase of growth in the ancient infection.

[Roverman2K]

Why, Illegal aliens thats why, mostly Chinese

[stopem]

You can thank the illegals for this too.

[Farmer Dean]

Thank a drug addict for this problem.They stop treatment before cured,rendering the antibotics useless.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

We have a TB scare at work every couple of years due to the rising numbers of Asian operators being hired.

[Paperdoll]

Yes, not only are illegal aliens filling our incarceration centers to the brim, but they are bringing a resurgence of
TB, other communicable diseases, and BED BUGS!!!! When will the gubmint come to its senses and do something about our open borders?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Now, this scares me more than the bird flu.

[hershey]

NPR ran an interview about this this morning, basically another hit job on the Bush admin. How dare the CDC's budget be cut for next year when the world needs the US to foot the bill....fifty billion...to wipe out TB. The head of the World Health Org. was very vocal expressing anger. There were new drugs in the pipeline that could be rushed along if the US would just pony up. Two million people will die and it'll be the US's fault. Not a peep about why people get TB, how to avoid it, etc..

[hershey]

I don't recall the use of the word, illegal, in that NPR piece this morning. 'Immigrants' was as close as they got.

[P-40]

I don't recall the use of the word, illegal, in that NPR piece this morning.

If this is the same piece I heard I loved how they pointed out that most of the cases here in Texas were on the border as if there was nothing significant about that.

[omega4412]

They're just carrying the diseases we can't get Americans to carry.

[neverdem]

Oily fish 'no clear benefits'

Oily fish and omega 3 fat supplements BMJ editorial in pdf format

Mouse testicle cells behave like stem cells, suggesting new source for therapy

Stem cells found in adult mouse testes news@nature.com

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unposted link as they see fit. Could someone who never registered, not subcribe, with either BMJ or Nature let me know if they can access those links?

[joesnuffy]

Once upon a time Ellis Island screened out the diseased immigrants...

Not any more...as this would be too offensive to the disease carriers...must protect their right to infect the rest of the nation...

Why?

Why is America trying to infect itself with epidemics...infect itself with drugs, and violent criminals, with terrorists muslims, and Narco Terrorist Gangs

I'm sure our leaders know exactly what they are doing..

Back to sleep....consume...obey....reproduce...

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Our Diversity Is Our Strength!

[neverdem]

Resistant TB from Mexico feared also.

[Squantos]

" ... I told my doctor I got all the exercise I needed being a
pallbearer for all my friends who run and do exercises!"
-- Winston Churchill




BTTT !!.......:o)

[neverdem]

It's not just domestic junkies. Despite higher rates of intravenous drug use and homelessness and an increasing rate of tuberculosis during this 13-year period, the frequency of primary drug resistance decreased from 13.0 percent to 6.7 percent (P<0.001) after the institution of direct observation of therapy(DOT), and the frequency of acquired resistance declined from 14.0 percent to 2.1 percent (P<0.001). DOT works.

[No2much3]

I think you may find a lot of AIDS patients with TB. It is a common secondary illness with AIDS infected prisoners as they advance in the disease, due to their weakened immune system.

Lung cancer patients are also likely to get TB before they are diagnosed with the lung cancer. The cancer is usually discovered after the x-rays for TB.

For these folks, TB is a killer.

[groanup]

Institutional medical care guarantees the mixing of disease with people. We got rid of tuberculosis years ago. The scourge of the last century was tubercular Europeans. The new scourge is AIDS. If you want to live a long life put doctors on the bottom of the list of professionals who will help you do that. They are good at identifying life threatening diseases but they are much better at killing you.