Tuberculosis Still on the Rise, U.S. Health Officials Say

Tuberculosis is still spreading in the United States, with a 1.5% increase in the number of new cases last year, government health officials said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 26,673 new cases for 1992, up from 26,283 in 1991 and up 20% from 1985.

“That’s not acceptable,” said Dr. Lee Reichman, president of the American Lung Assn. “This is a preventable disease, this is a curable disease and it’s a fatal disease.”

Tuberculosis, a chronic bacterial infection, is spread through the air and usually affects the lungs. U.S. cases reached a record low in 1985, thanks to improved prevention and treatment, but then began to skyrocket.

The CDC said the rate of TB cases also rose slightly last year, to 10.5 cases per 100,000 people from 10.4 in 1991. The U.S. goal for the year 2000 was to have no more than 3.5 cases per 100,000.

“We’re not heading in the right direction,” said Dr. Alan Bloch, a CDC epidemiologist.

Worldwide, 1.7 billion people are infected with dormant tuberculosis, and 8 million of them come down with active and highly contagious cases of the disease each year. About 10 million Americans are believed to be infected with dormant TB.

The rise in new cases in the United States is due to a combination of patients infected with the AIDS virus and a growing number of TB-infected immigrants, Bloch said. The AIDS virus makes people more susceptible to disease.

Bloch said a rise in cases in U.S.-born children under age 5 shows that TB is spreading rapidly in other populations as well. While TB can remain dormant for years, young children clearly were infected recently, he said. In 1986, there were 630 such cases; in 1991, 806.

The CDC has not finished analyzing the 1992 figures and could provide no demographic breakdown. Officials hope to present more detailed figures at the lung association’s international conference in San Francisco next week.

The figures show that the nation must find the money to battle the disease, Reichman said. The government puts the cost of controlling TB at $515 million, yet has appropriated only $106 million so far this year, he said.

Drugs can prevent people infected with dormant TB from developing the disease, and even full-blown cases are curable if patients take their medicine, he said.