Tuberculosis in the United States

Posted: Jul 25th, 2016 at 07:26PM - by e7 Health

Recently, news broke out of Wisconsin that 6 refugees who are living in Wisconsin were diagnosed with an MDR (Multi-Drug resistant) strain of tuberculosis dating back to 2014 and 2015. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services also came forward and said that an additional 21 refugees were diagnosed with TB during this same time period, which in turn has made Wisconsin the "TB Capital of the country" according to Breitbart News. Other states that have had issues with refugees being affected by TB include Louisiana, Vermont, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky and Idaho (to name just a few). There are 41 other states that Breitbart News has requested health data from and are still waiting for.

The multi-drug resistant form of TB isn't always treatable or curable, and the treatment is expensive and is quite a long process. Active TB that isn't drug resistant and that is curable often comes at a price. Active TB can take anywhere from four to nine months to actually have an effect and can cost upwards of $17000.00 per patient to treat. The MDR strain of TB can cost up to $150,000.00 per infected patients! Active TB cases in Wisconsin rose from 2014 to 2015, up 40% in fact. The MDR version of TB is actually a very small percentage in the United State. Only 91 cases out of 9,421 active cases were diagnosed as MDR by the CDC in 2014. It seems though that there was a slight to significant increase in the amount of MDR cases in 2015, with a total of 62 cases from 15 states. California had 22 cases of MDR TB, which is up from the 18 that they had in 2014.

The Center for Disease Control is slated to release its final report based off of 2015 in September, giving us a better idea at the state that have the highest TB outbreaks and what types of TB is more prevalent. MDR TB has long been a problem in the state of Wisconsin though, so this isn't really something that is new for the states. Between 2005 and 2012, there were 20 cases of MDR TB diagnosed in the state.

At e7 Health, we provide both the one and two step TB Skin testing, along with the Quantiferon Blood test and the chest X-Ray. We are able to do most services same day, if not next day. Call us today at 702-800-2723 OR book an appointment on our website! Get yourself tested today at one of our locations.