The Region : TB Rate High in Foreign-Born Pupils

About 17.5% of all foreign-born children who have entered schools in Los Angeles County in the last two years have been exposed to the tuberculosis bacteria, the American Lung Assn. and the county Department of Health Services announced. For entering schoolchildren born in the United States, the figure is about 1%. The statistics are about the same as a decade ago, according to Gerrie Kilburn, a spokesman for the lung association, which called the press conference to dramatize the relatively large number of tuberculosis cases in the county. In 1986, there were 16.4 cases per 100,000 people in Los Angeles County, many among the Asian and Latino groups. By comparison, the national rate of tuberculosis cases in 1986 was 9.4 cases per 100,000. Through June of this year, there were 794 tuberculosis cases in Los Angeles County, compared with 705 in 1986.