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Date:  May 23, 1995
Contact:  PHS/CDC (404) 639-3286

This 1994 decline is the second in a row, 8.7 percent below 1992, and partially reverses the 20 percent increase in cases that occurred from 1985 through 1992, the CDC said.

Kenneth Castro, M.D., director of CDC's division of tuberculosis elimination, reported the figures today at the American Thoracic Society's annual meeting in Seattle, Wash.

CDC Director David Satcher, M.D., said, "This is a public health success made possible by increased federal funding of approximately $100 million over two years as well as state and local TB control efforts. We must maintain our efforts to ensure the decline continues."

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala said the "good news should not make us forget the lessons of the recent past and let up our efforts and our financial commitment."

The director of the Public Health Service, Assistant Secretary for Health Philip R. Lee, M.D., said funding cut-backs in the 1980s, the HIV epidemic and immigration from countries with many cases of TB helped cause the resurgence of TB, some strains, he noted, have been resistant to traditional treatment. Other factors included increased prison and homeless populations.

"Inadequate federal funding in the '80s contributed to the increase in tuberculosis after 30 years of decline," Dr. Lee said. "It would be tragic to let that happen again."

CDC officials said that 10 to 15 million people in the United States have latent TB infections that can sometimes develop into active cases, which are then infectious to others. Worldwide, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in adults by an infectious disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a Public Health Service agency within HHS.