For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke - 213.201.1525
EMAIL:jburke@apla.org
GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS DEATHS CLIMB WHILE RATES IN U.S. DOWN
Money, Awareness Needed on World TB Day
March 23, 2005, Los Angeles, CA – While active tuberculosis (TB) infection rates in the U.S. are down from 2003 according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 3.6 million Californians are currently infected with the bacterium that causes TB, and California claims 10 of the top 25 U.S. metro areas for TB rates. AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) joins advocates across the nation in calling for sustained efforts on the eve of World TB Day 2005 on March 24.
More than one-third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacterium, and TB disease remains one of the leading causes of disease and death around the world, the CDC reports. Each year, 8 million people become ill with TB, and 2 million people die from the disease.
World TB Day commemorates the date in 1882 that Robert Koch announced discovery of the TB bacterium. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the day as a global call to action against the disease.
Globally, co-infection with TB remains one of the most serious conditions for people living with HIV in developing countries, where half of all HIV deaths are from TB. The compromised immune system of HIV-positive individuals increases the likelihood of developing TB, and the development of active TB speeds the progression of HIV disease to full-blown AIDS. TB is both preventable and curable in HIV-positive individuals.
Advocates note that while global rates of TB infection are on the rise, funding to fight the disease is declining.
“ TB and HIV are a deadly combination claiming millions of lives across the world,” said Craig E. Thompson, executive director of APLA. “World TB Day is a wake up call to world’s leaders that we can control TB through testing and care. But we can’t do it without more money.”
Once a leading killer, TB declined in the United States when rates of new HIV infections peaked in the early 1990s. According to the CDC report, foreign-born residents accounted for almost 54 percent of the current TB cases in the United States in 2004.
Latinos had the largest share of overall cases for the first time, due to that population’s growth in this country. Latinos and blacks were about 8 times more likely than whites to have TB last year. Asians had a rate 20 times that of whites.
In California, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Oakland, San Diego, Los Angeles, Stockton, Ventura, Bakersfield, and Orange County rank in the top 25 metro areas for TB infection.
Some facts about TB in California:
• The majority of TB-infected people are unaware of their infection, because it is “latent” or sleeping, and doesn’t make them or others sick.
• If Californians with TB are not found and treated, 145,000 of them may develop “active” TB in their lifetime, which will make them both sick and infectious.
• Public health departments in California examine 15,000 people annually for TB, and also find and test people who may have been exposed to someone with active TB. Some years there are as many as 25,000 people who need to be found and entered into treatment as a result of this screening.
• The surest way to protect public health and to eliminate TB is to get every infected person in compliance with his/her treatment. Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), in which health workers directly observe the infected person swallow the pills, is the standard of care recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
• California public health departments do not have enough resources to hire the staff to make sure that every patient in the state with TB gets Directly Observed Therapy (DOT).
Helpful links:
California
• Tuberculosis Controllers Association (CTCA) / www.ctca.org
• California Department of Health Services / www.dhs.ca.gov
National
• American Lung Association / www.lungusa.org
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/faqs/pdfs/qa.pdf
Global
• World Health Organization (WHO) / www.who.int/tb
AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Founded by four friends in 1982, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.
###
