Agencies Join in Fight Against TB: County Cases Have Gone Up in Recent Years, With Three Already Thi

Mar 15, 11:25 PM

Current Headlines: By Jennifer L. Boen, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Mar. 15--Three of the county's biggest health-care entities have come together to form the Allen County Tuberculosis Consortium in an effort to help prevent, detect and treat TB.

The county has heightened its TB prevention and control efforts since a significant rise in cases starting in 2004. That's when Allen County recorded 24 newly diagnosed cases of active TB; the following year there were 20. The norm is five or six.

Last year, the number of cases dropped to 10, but three have already been diagnosed this year, said Dr. Deborah McMahan, Allen County commissioner of health.

"Tuberculosis is still a public health threat," she said. "But this is also a disease that can be cured, controlled and, with diligent efforts and sufficient resources, eventually eliminated."

TB is a communicable disease caused by bacteria that usually attack the lungs, although any part of the body can be affected, including the lymph nodes and brain. The disease can be fatal if not effectively treated. Worldwide, about 2 million people die annually from TB.

Removing the stigma surrounding TB and educating the public has prompted the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health, Lutheran Health Network and Parkview Health to collaborate. The consortium will develop educational materials for the public and health-care providers and work to promote efficient use of resources.

In a statewide discussion last year on the outbreak in Allen County, McMahan said, "The outbreak was more the effect of the stigma of TB. TB is not the plague. It's not an STD, but people act like it is. I don't know why. It's another respiratory disease ... someone taking a breath at the wrong place at the wrong time."

To put the number of active TB cases in the county in perspective, consider that more than 200 cases of latent TB were diagnosed in 2004. Latent TB means the person has been exposed to the bacteria but does not have symptoms yet and will not pass the disease on to others.

Health officials have been diligently tracking those 200-plus cases because about 10 percent of people with latent TB will develop active TB within two years.

Treatment lasts about nine months and involves medicine administered several times a week by a public-health worker.

The worker observes the person swallowing the medication. In some Third World countries where workers do not observe the treatment, drug-resistant cases are on the rise.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

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