Drug-Resistant TB Spreads to 42 States
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A highly drug-resistant tuberculosis found in only 13 states six years ago has spread to 42 states, although the total number of the hard-to-treat TB cases nationwide has declined, federal researchers say. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the past few years, a form of TB that resists the two drugs normally used to cure the bacterial infection has spread throughout the country. From 1993 through 1996, a total of 1,457 multi-drug resistant TB cases were recorded, which is about 2.2% of the roughly 66,000 TB cases that appeared in the United States during the same period. However, the number is on the decline: There were 488 cases of multi-drug resistant TB in 1993, but only 237 cases in 1996.
