{"id":5831,"date":"2011-11-26T17:40:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T01:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/u-s-tuberculosis-infection-rates-near-the-top-in-king-county\/"},"modified":"2016-10-21T17:45:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T00:45:31","slug":"u-s-tuberculosis-infection-rates-near-the-top-in-king-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/u-s-tuberculosis-infection-rates-near-the-top-in-king-county\/","title":{"rendered":"U. S. tuberculosis infection rates near the top in King County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div>King County continues to have one of the highest tuberculosis (TB)  infection rates in the United States, because of the world-wide epidemic  and the region\u2019s status as a global crossroads.\u00a0 Public Health &#8211;  Seattle &amp; King County\u2019s new 2010 TB report\u2014online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kingcounty.gov\/healthservices\/health\/communicable\/TB.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">www.kingcounty.gov\/health\/tb<\/a>\u2014details  these latest findings, its work in controlling the spread of the  disease, and the ongoing and expensive challenge of battling drug  resistant strains of TB.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>In 2010, Public Health\u2019s TB Program identified 114 cases of active  TB and provided treatment and\/or evaluation to more than 1,100 King  County residents with active or latent TB. Nearly one in five people  treated for active TB in King County are resistant to at least one  medication, and two people had multi-drug resistant infections. The  costs of treating multi-drug resistant TB can add up to $250,000 for  each case. Further, approximately 100,000\u2014or about five percent of  people in King County\u2014have latent TB infection. Globally, about two  million die from TB every year, and one third of the population is  infected.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>\u201cTB control is an essential investment in the health of our  communities that helps us fight the local effects of this global  disease,\u201d said Dr. David Fleming, Director &amp; Health Officer for  Public Health \u2013 Seattle &amp; King County. \u201cIn these difficult budget  times, state funding support for this work is now threatened, but we  can\u2019t afford to let down our guard.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>Public health funding has experienced drastic cuts over the last  few years, and potential cuts in Olympia further threaten core services,  including TB control.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>In addition to diagnosing and treating people with active TB, the  TB Control Program also screens the family, friends and close contacts  of people with active TB. In 2010, the TB Program tested more than 450  close contacts of people with active TB and found that nearly  one-quarter were infected with latent (or dormant) TB.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>\u201cIf we catch TB infection before it becomes active, treatment is  cheaper and easier,\u201d said Dr. Masa Narita, TB Control Officer for Public  Health. \u201cBest of all, fewer people will get sick with active  tuberculosis.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>Additional findings in the 2010 TB Annual Report include:<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>King County\u2019s infection rate, at 5.9 residents per 100,000, was one  and one half times the United States rate of 3.6 per 100,000, and the  Washington state rate of 3.5.<\/li>\n<li>People of color continue to have disproportionately high rates of TB.<\/li>\n<li>84 percent of infected individuals were born outside of the U.S.,  primarily Southeast Asia and India, East Africa and Central America.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div><strong>Background on TB<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>Tuberculosis, also called TB, is an infectious disease caused by a  bacterium named Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB often involves the lungs  (pulmonary TB) but can infect almost any organ in the body. TB is almost  always curable with antibiotics that are readily available in countries  such as the United States.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>People with active TB disease are made sick by bacteria that are  active in their body. People with latent, or dormant, TB infection are  not sick because the germ is inactive inside their body, and they cannot  spread TB infection to others.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div>To view the 2010 summary data and for more information on Public Health&#8217;s TB Control Program and activities, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kingcounty.gov\/healthservices\/health\/communicable\/TB.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">www.kingcounty.gov\/health\/tb<\/a>.<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>King County continues to have one of the highest tuberculosis (TB) infection rates in the United States, because of the world-wide epidemic and the region\u2019s status as a global crossroads.  Public Health &#8211; Seattle &amp; King County\u2019s new 2010 TB report\u2014online at www.kingcounty.gov\/health\/tb\u2014details these latest findings, its work in controlling the spread of the disease, and the ongoing and expensive challenge of battling drug resistant strains of TB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5831"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}