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Source: http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-...ening-on-hold/
Mar 14, 2013 - 09:59 AM AKST
State puts routine TB screening on hold
JAMES BROOKS, Kodiak Daily Mirror
(AP) ? In the 1940s and 1950s, medical ships cruised the waters of southwest Alaska, trying to end an epidemic of tuberculosis that infected as many of 90 percent of the regions population.
Doctors now face shortages of tuberculosis detection and treatment medicines even as the aftershocks of that 70-year-old epidemic infect Alaskans anew.
"What we're having to do due to the national shortage is to ask people to put on hold some of the routine screening of at-risk people," said Dr. Michael Cooper, Alaska's deputy state epidemiologist.
Alaska has the highest tuberculosis rates in the country, partly due to the mid-20th century epidemic, Cooper explained.
Five to 10 percent of "cured" tuberculosis patients experience recurring cases of the disease later in life. "We get these flare-ups out in the villages," he said. "Before you know it, they've spread it..."
Mar 14, 2013 - 09:59 AM AKST
State puts routine TB screening on hold
JAMES BROOKS, Kodiak Daily Mirror
(AP) ? In the 1940s and 1950s, medical ships cruised the waters of southwest Alaska, trying to end an epidemic of tuberculosis that infected as many of 90 percent of the regions population.
Doctors now face shortages of tuberculosis detection and treatment medicines even as the aftershocks of that 70-year-old epidemic infect Alaskans anew.
"What we're having to do due to the national shortage is to ask people to put on hold some of the routine screening of at-risk people," said Dr. Michael Cooper, Alaska's deputy state epidemiologist.
Alaska has the highest tuberculosis rates in the country, partly due to the mid-20th century epidemic, Cooper explained.
Five to 10 percent of "cured" tuberculosis patients experience recurring cases of the disease later in life. "We get these flare-ups out in the villages," he said. "Before you know it, they've spread it..."