King County Teeming With TB, Health Officials Say
According to their annual report of the disease and its prevalence in the region, King County's Public Health office has found that our area is rife with it. In fact, we've got some of the highest rates in the country.
The report, which is creatively titled "Annual Report on Tuberculosis 2010" outlines surprising numbers, including the fact that as many as 100,000 people in the country are currently carrying latent TB. In 2010 alone, nearly 6 in every 100,000 residents developed active TB.
For context, the State's average is 3.5, and the national average is 3.6 cases per 100,000.
Apparently, the report states, we're in the midst of a global epidemic--and Seattle, as a highly-trafficked "cross-roads" serves as an important germ-swapping junction, where lots of people come together to infect each other. More than 80% of those diagnosed with active TB were born outside of the United States.
Plenty of people carry latent TB without knowing it, which is what makes the disease so difficult to treat. Unless latent carriers get tested for, say, a job, they are often unaware that they have it, and that they may be infecting people. Additionally, treatment of TB requires lengthy, regular medication with anitbiotics for up to 6 months after diagnosis, which can be difficult for many patients to stick with--increasing the risks of drug resistance.
TB is usually treatable--unless, like about 20% of those treated for the disease, the strain you've contracted is one that has become drug-resistant. In those cases, it can cost as much as a quarter of a million dollars to seek treatment that may work, and even then, the disease can (rarely) be fatal. TB kills 2 million people globally each year, but few of the deaths occur in the United States.
Public health officials recommend getting tested, receiving the tuberculosis vaccine, as well as immediate visits to a doctor following a persistent wet (or bloody) cough to prevent the spread of the disease, which is spread through sneezing, coughing, and saliva exchange, but usually requires prolonged exposure.
