Bringing TB Under Control

* Although the national incidence of tuberculosis has declined over the last four years to 21,337 cases in 1996, this number is still unacceptably high.

Greater efforts should be made to control TB, particularly in areas like Orange County, where case rates have not significantly decreased (“After Decline, TB Cases up 21% in ‘97,” March 21).

In an era of balanced budgets and fiscal constraint, it may be tempting to some to cut back on TB-control programs when a decrease in incidence is observed. Let us not repeat our mistakes of the early 1980s, when we cut back on TB control and experienced a subsequent epidemic of the disease.

Furthermore, we cannot simply focus our control efforts domestically anymore. Over a third of this nation’s TB cases are among the foreign-born, and this proportion continues to increase.

Unless we help control TB globally--3 million die of the disease every year--we cannot hope to control this airborne disease within our own borders.

CELINE GOUNDER

Project Manager,

Princeton Project 55

Tuberculosis Initiative

Washington, D.C.