TB spreading in Marshall Islands

[Gert van der Hoek]

TB spreading in Marshall Islands

MAJURO: Tuberculosis has reached ?alarming? levels in the Marshall Islands despite aggressive attempts to detect and treat the deadly disease, a specialist said. Some 126 new cases were recorded in the Pacific island nation of 60,000 people last year, statistics released by the Ministry of Health showed.

?It?s alarming,? said tuberculosis consultant Subroto Banerji from the US Center for Disease Control. Banerji said the figures were up from 121 new cases the previous year.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=50334

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: TB spreading in Marshall Islands

TB reaches alarming levels in Marshall Islands

Tuberculosis has reached "alarming" levels in the Marshall Islands despite aggressive attempts to detect and treat the deadly disease, a specialist said.

Some 126 new cases were recorded in the Pacific island nation of 60,000 people last year, statistics released by the Ministry of Health showed.

"It's alarming," said tuberculosis consultant Subroto Banerji from the US Center for Disease Control.

Banerji said the figures were up from 121 new cases the previous year.

The infection rate is nearly four times the average in the Pacific region and 47 times the rate in the United States.

"But (the Ministry of Health) is going all out to identify and treat cases. In other countries, it takes 10 years to make an impact and bring the rate down," Banerji said.

A TB eradication programme was only launched here three years ago, said Kennar Briand, the director of public health for the Marshall Islands.

The geography of the nation is a challenge to controlling the disease which infects the lungs and is usually transitted through coughing and sneezing.

Although the population is relatively small, people live on islands scattered across 500,000 square miles (1.29 million square kilometres) of ocean, and many islands are accessible only by small boats.

A screening problem has been introduced along with treatment programmes, Briand said.

Two serious challenges to TB control in the country are the high rate of diabetes, which compromises people's immune systems, making it more difficult to treat TB, and getting islanders to complete the minimum six-month course of daily treatment.

"After a few months of taking the medicines, some patients think they are cured because their symptoms go away. But they're not," Briand said.

This problem resulted in the discovery of two drug-resistant TB cases, which require a longer treatment period and more expensive and toxic drugs.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070408212718.ygqgoqv5&cat=null

[fretti]

Re: TB spreading in Marshall Islands

Here too!!

Health officials: Man, 12 co-workers test positive for tuberculosis

BEAVERTON [Oregon]-- A former employee of a Beaverton call center [Stream, International] has tuberculosis and 12 of his co-workers are showing evidence of the disease...

The dozen co-workers who tested positive with latent tuberculosis -- a level of the disease where its germs remain inactive -- also are being treated. They cannot spread the disease to others, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Family members of the man with the active disease... also tested positive for latent tuberculosis ...

Burtner said the public should not be concerned by the disease's outbreak. Typically eight to 20 cases of active tuberculosis are diagnosed and reported annually in Washington County....

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/04/health_officials_man_12_cowork.html

According to the news report, another 300 people will be tested this week.