Control activities lead to continued decrease of TB cases in 2005

KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - After reaching a 30-year high in tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2002, intensive efforts to control TB have contributed to a continued decline in TB cases. In 2005, King County had 127 TB cases.

“Public Health, working with its partners, has been able to strengthen the investigation, treatment and management of TB cases in order to effectively treat cases and avoid local outbreaks” said Dorothy Teeter, Interim Director and Health Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County.

Key points from the new Seattle & King County 2005 Annual Tuberculosis Report, found at www.metrokc.gov/health/tb/tbfacts.htm, include:

there were 127 new cases in the county, compared to 133 in 2004 and 155 in 2003
the rate was 7.0 cases per 100,000 people, a decline from 7.4 in 2004 and 8.7 in 2003
Certain groups, such as blacks and Asians, had disproportionately higher rates of TB. Like in previous years, a majority of the cases are among the foreign born.
5.5 % of TB cases were among HIV infected persons
15% of TB cases were resistant to at least one TB medication, and 2% of cases were multi-drug resistant, making them difficult and costly to treat

Among the improvements in TB control activities:

a new nurse case management model was introduced, with five teams consisting of public health nurses and outreach workers providing individualized and direct patient care
there has been a dramatic increase in the proportion of patients receiving direct observed therapy and case management
the proportion of cases offered HIV testing in King County has improved from 85% to 99% over the past five years

“TB is curable and preventable, but we face many on-going challenges in controlling TB,” said Dr. Masa Narita, TB Control Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County. “We have approximately 100,000 people living in our county with dormant, latent TB infection who are not contagious, but are potentially future active TB cases.”

Globally, one third of the world's population has TB infection, and two million people a year die of the disease.

Providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County, Public Health – Seattle & King County works for safer and healthier communities for everyone, every day.

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