Queens is king of tuberculosis

From AMNY:

The number of new tuberculosis cases recorded in New York City jumped by 10 percent last year, the largest increase in 25 years, according to a new report released on Monday.

City officials expressed concern over the health department report detailing 613 new cases in 2017, which is up from 556 recorded in 2016. The number of new multidrug-resistant TB cases also grew in 2017, from 11 to 14.

“New York City has been a leader in TB control, and we need to address this increase in cases,” said Dr. Joseph Burzynski, assistant commissioner for the health department’s Bureau of TB Control. “It will require a coordinated public health response, coupled with the city’s robust health care infrastructure, to make progress in the effort to eliminate tuberculosis as a threat in New York City.”

This is the first time that the city has seen an increase in new TB cases since 2003, according to the report.

Burzynski said TB was found in almost every New York City neighborhood last year, with Sunset Park, western Queens and Flushing having the highest rates of cases. The borough of Queens had the highest rate of cases — 10.6 per 100,000 people. The citywide rate of TB was 7.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Tuberculosis outbreak in Brooklyn

From DNA Info:

There has been an outbreak of tuberculosis among young Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park, according to a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene alert.

There have been 15 confirmed cases since June 2013, with seven of those identified since September, according to the alert. Health care providers were advised to look out for symptoms including fever, a cough lasting several weeks, night sweats and weight loss.

“While overall tuberculosis (TB) rates in NYC have declined steadily over the past two decades, the proportion of cases among persons born outside of the United States has increased to 84%, and local TB transmission continues to occur,” the alert read.

Most of those stricken with the disease have been young men who frequent Internet cafes and work in out-of-state restaurants.

You have to live in very close contact with someone for an extended period of time in order to pass TB along. Officials may want to look into the living conditions of the victims.

More people contracting TB

From the Queens Courier:

A Hillcrest High School student recently exposed to tuberculosis is receiving treatment and recovering from the potentially deadly bacterial infection, officials said.

The Health Department tested 170 students and six staff members who might have been at risk at the Queens school Tuesday as a precaution.

“Given that the person with TB is receiving treatment, there is no health risk to students or staff currently at the school,” a department spokeswoman said.

Tuberculosis cases are on the rise in the city for the first time in a decade, health officials said. They increased 1 percent from 651 in 2012 to 656 in 2013.

Most people infected were foreign-born, living in Flushing, western Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, according to the Health Department.

Officials said 19 out of 100,000 people have contracted the disease in Corona, Woodside, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Maspeth and 15 out of 100,000 in Flushing.

“Many are likely infected in their country of origin and developed TB after entering the U.S.,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said.

TB crossing our borders

From the Daily News:

Tuberculosis cases hit a record low in the city, but the disease is still rampaging through Chinese and Ecuadoran communities.

Health officials say immigrants are bringing the contagious lung disease here from their homelands.

In 1992, the height of the city's TB epidemic, 70% of the cases were in New Yorkers born here. Now 80% of the cases stem from those born abroad.

Doctors suspect the disease is dormant among immigrants until they come to the U.S.

Although a TB test is required for permanent immigration, those who arrive illegally or for school may not get the pinprick exam.

Health officials' priority is early treatment to prevent its spread, but TB often goes undiagnosed because the sufferers are poor, undocumented or leery of government.

Queens: breeding ground of vibrant and diverse diseases

From the Queens Courier:

Queens residents may be at a substantially higher risk for tuberculosis (TB) than the average American, despite an encouraging citywide decrease in occurrences of the disease, according to data released by the New York City Department of Health.

While the national average for tuberculosis occurrences is 3.8 cases per every 100,000 people, the rate for west Queens is 21.5 cases, an increase of more than five times. Flushing is also well above the national average, with 16.3 cases per.

The wide ethnic demographics in Queens may play a role in the borough’s poor rates. According to the health department data, which was released on March 24, foreign born New Yorkers comprise most of the city’s tuberculosis cases, accounting for 77 percent. China leads the pack for countries of origin of the city’s TB patients, followed distantly by Mexico, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and India. The high rate in Flushing may be accounted for by its large population of Chinese residents.

Potential new pandemic reaches America

From Eyewitness News/AP:

It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away.

Then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled the skinny frame of Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. His lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., Juarez felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood.

Doctors say Juarez's incessant hack was a sign of what they have both dreaded and expected for years - this country's first case of a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. The Associated Press learned of his case, which until now has not been made public, as part of a six-month look at the soaring global challenge of drug resistance.

Let's see where we stand on this:

- Hospitals closing
- People living in overcrowded conditions
- Unchecked hordes of people entering the country
- No action plan to turn to when faced with inevitable pandemic (see "swine flu crisis")
- A government that is too concerned with ensuring an illegal labor force, a war on fat and developers' bottom lines to care about any of the above

The perfect storm.