TB Rates Fall

CDC notes record setting decrease in annual TB rates.
The New York Times (3/31, Rabin) reported, "Tuberculosis rates in the United States dropped more than 10 percent last year compared with 2008, the sharpest decrease ever recorded in a single year," according to CDC officials. Although the reasons behind the trends "were not entirely clear," federal health authorities "did not rule out the possibility that some cases went uncounted or perhaps even undiagnosed because patients did not have access to medical care." Still, "the report's lead author said public health efforts to identify TB outbreaks earlier and interrupt transmission in hard-hit communities might have contributed to the decline, along with demographic shifts and more aggressive screening of would-be immigrants."
Obama Administration urged to boost financial commitment to TB fight. The Miami Herald (3/31) opined, "A global epidemic -- and security threat -- is in the making, if" TB "is not attacked swiftly and with precision." The matter has become increasingly urgent, "because new antibiotic-resistant strains of TB are emerging," but "unfortunately, President Obama's budget proposal this year would cut $50 million from a $4 billion, five-year plan to fight TB globally and flat line money for domestic TB-fighting programs." Alongside supporting additional laboratories focused on testing and antibiotic research, the Herald maintained that "the United States should be leading the way -- not retreating from this menace."