CDC Releases TB Update

CDC data indicate decline in US TB rate; WHO releases data on drug-resistant strains.
The Los Angeles Times (3/21, Maugh) reported, "The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that TB prevalence in this country dropped 11.8% last year, the largest yearly decline since the government began monitoring the disease in 1953." That very same day, "the World Health Organization reported that an estimated 440,000 people worldwide had multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in 2008, and a third of them died." Altogether, "there were 9.4 million new TB cases in 2008 and 1.8 million deaths, so the drug-resistant strains are a relatively small problem." Now, however, "experts fear they will displace conventional strains of the TB mycobacterium, complicating treatment."