Has Your Child Been Exposed to TB? Have You?
In the United States, 13,767 cases of Tuberculosis were reported in 2006. 2,781 of those were in California, making California the state with the fourth highest rate of incidence.
Last year, there were 315 cases of TB in San Diego County, up by 10 from the previous year according to the County of San Diego Tuberculosis Control Program. There were five outbreaks at schools, colleges, casinos and nail salons in the past six months alone.
For each case of TB, there are dozens of potential cases due to exposure to the infected person. Left untreated, a person with active TB will infect 10 to 15 people every year.
When one child at Felicita Elementary in Escondido was diagnosed with the disease on May 16, 70 other children, teachers and staff members were identified as having been exposed to him. Testing of those individuals will be conducted on the school campus next week. If these people test positively, the outbreak could spread exponentially.
How is tuberculosis contracted?
In San Diego, approximately 10% of TB cases are acquired through unpasteurized dairy products. A small percentage of cases may also be attributed to draining skin or tissue abscesses. The remaining great majority of the cases typically occur when a person with TB of the lungs coughs, sneezes, laughs or speaks.
What are the symptoms?
According to Medline Plus (a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health), the symptoms to look for are:
- A bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer
- Weight loss
- Coughing up blood or mucus
- Weakness or fatigue
- Fever and chills
- Night sweats
Although TB typically attacks the lungs, it can also affect other parts of the body, such as the brain or the spine.
How is TB detected?
A TB skin test may be performed routinely as part of a physical examination, or when symptoms arise. A small needle filled with tuberculin is placed just under the skin on the inside of the forearm. Two to three days later, the site is checked for inflammation. Alternatively, a blood test called the QuantiFERON TB Gold (QFT) can be used to detect TB.
A negative QFT test usually means you are not infected.
If your TB skin test is negative, however, it is possible that it’s a false-negative if exposure to TB was very recent, or if your immune system is weakened. Additional testing may be required.
If your doctor determines that your TB skin test is positive, you’ll probably need a chest x-ray. If a spot or shadow is found on your lungs, you have active tuberculosis. If not, you have been exposed, but you do not have active TB.
What if you have inactive TB?
If you have been exposed to TB, but the germ is inactive, you’re not contagious. You may not feel sick, but the germ can become active and make you sick and contagious at any time. You’ll need to take a full course of antibiotics to kill the germ before that happens. From that point on, your skin test will always test positive, but you will only need a chest x-ray if you’re experiencing other symptoms.
How is active TB treated?
TB can usually be cured by taking several medicines over an extended period of time. The infected person should also be isolated for two to three weeks, until they have three consecutive negative sputum smear results from sputum collected on three different days. With treatment, a person without other compromising factors (such as HIV or AIDS) will usually survive this disease, and can go on to live a long and healthy life. For those with autoimmune deficiencies, the prognosis
The Future of TB
U.S. Tuberculosis cases are at an all-time low, and have been declining consistently since the 1990’s. This in no way means that the disease is gone, as there are more cases globally than ever before. This remains a serious threat worldwide, with the highest number of deaths in India and China, and the highest death rate in Swaziland.
Tuberculosis kills 4400 people every day, or one person every 18 seconds. An estimated 1.6 million people died of the disease in 2005. One in three people with untreated tuberculosis die.
There are new drugs being developed to combat TB, while drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis remain a serious threat.
The Stop TB Partnership is a group of 400 organizations, all dedicated to eradicating the disease. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given $900 million to help fight tuberculosis worldwide. The National Institutes of Health just this month awarded $27 million to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Tuberculosis Research Unit (TBRU). Through global efforts like these, it’s possible that TB could be eradicated from the earth within our generation.
If you’d like to obtain ongoing information about Tuberculosis, you can subscribe online to TB-Related News and Journal Items Weekly Update from the National Prevention Information Network.
Stay healthy, San Diego.
Comments Off