- ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S.
health experts said on Thursday a global tuberculosis epidemic was fueling
high rates of the disease among immigrants, refugees and other foreign-born
residents in the United States and threatening efforts to eradicate the
disease.
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- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
foreign-born people accounted for 46 percent of the 16,377 new U.S. cases
of tuberculosis in 2000 and 72 percent of the more serious 141 multi-drug
resistant TB cases.
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- The rate of infection in this group was more than seven
times higher than for those born in the United States and those born
outside
its borders to U.S.-born parents. The study did not include anyone born
overseas with at least one U.S.-born parent.
-
- TB, once a leading killer in the nation, is caused by
an airborne bacteria spread by coughing and other close personal contact.
It can usually be cured with antibiotics.
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- "The latest data makes clear that we have to address
a key challenge and that is improving the screening and treatment of
individuals
born in other countries," Dr. Ken Castro, a CDC tuberculosis expert,
said in a conference call.
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- Although the overall number of TB infections has dropped
to a record low in the United States due to aggressive screening and
antibiotic
treatment, efforts to control the scourge have been stymied in part by
the spread of the disease abroad.
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- Eight million new cases of TB are reported around the
world every year, leading to 2 million deaths.
-
- CDC officials also said that poor access to health care,
adequate housing and nutrition for foreigners living in the United States,
especially illegal aliens, likely contributed to the high TB rate in this
group.
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- To combat the problem the Atlanta-based CDC said it would
work to improve screening by doctors stationed in U.S. embassies abroad,
upgrade coordination with state and local health departments and establish
a closer relationship with authorities fighting TB along the U.S.-Mexican
border.
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- Mexicans, Filipinos and Vietnamese living in the United
States account for the largest number of TB cases among foreign-born
individuals,
said Lilia Manangan, an epidemiologist in the CDC's TB surveillance
branch.
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- The CDC said recent arrivals from countries with high
rates of TB infection should be tested and treated, a recommendation
especially
important for California, Hawaii and other states with high foreign-born
TB infection rates.
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- Despite the worrying trend among the foreign-born,
federal
health experts said they were generally pleased to see TB infections
continuing
to decline after rising in the 1980s and early 1990s in step with the AIDS
epidemic.
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- AIDS attacks the immune system and renders the body
unable
to fight opportunistic infections such as TB.
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- Fears of further TB outbreaks linked to AIDS were stoked
last year when the CDC released an alarming study showing high rates of
new HIV infection among young gay and bisexual men.
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- It is estimated that those infected with HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS, account for a minimum of 10 percent to 15 percent of
new TB cases.
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