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Reuters
Los Angeles county health officials have asked for federal assistance to analyze and contain an outbreak of tuberculosis within the city's homeless population, a spokeswoman for the county agency said on Friday.
Los Angeles County Health Department spokeswoman Mabel Aragon said the agency is still in the process of confirming the number and type of TB cases in the county.
"The CDC is helping us with surveillance and statistic gathering," she said.
CDC spokesman Scott Bryan confirmed that the federal health agency has been asked by local and state TB officials to assist with the outbreak investigation. Bryan said the CDC plans to dispatch staff to the state in the next two weeks.
The Los Angeles Times reported that health workers have identified about 4,650 people who were probably exposed to a persistent outbreak of the contagious disease on downtown Los Angeles' skid row.
The newspaper said that over the past five years, county officials have identified 78 cases of a unique strain of the contagious disease, including 11 deaths. Sixty of those cases were homeless individuals leaving in the skid row area.
In an interview posted on the Los Angeles health department's website, Kiren Mitruka of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: "Although progress has been made toward eliminating TB in the U.S., TB outbreaks continue to occur and remain a challenging issue."
The United States had about 10,528 cases of tuberculosis in 2011 and there were 529 deaths from the disease in 2009, according to the latest full year CDC statistics.
The CDC responds to TB outbreaks only when state and public health departments exceed their surge capacity to control it, Mitruka said.
"We don't go in unless we're asked," she said in the online interview.
Typically, the CDC will conduct an onsite investigation lasting two to three weeks, working closely with state and local public health partners, Mitruka added.
The cluster of TB cases going on in Los Angeles follows a pattern of infection. A review of 51 TB cases which the CDC investigated between 2002 and 2008 published in Emerging Infectious Diseases found substance abuse was the most common risk factor, with 58 percent of outbreak patients reporting substance abuse.
Tuberculosis infection destroys lung tissue, causing patients to cough up the bacteria which then spreads through the air and can be inhaled by others.
Most cases can be cured with a six-month cocktail of antibiotics, but rates of drug-resistant TB have been spreading fast, causing alarm among public health officials and prompting calls for more research into new treatments.
"I think it's a wake up call that highlights the fact that this is still a major, major problem," said Dr. Mel Spigelman, chief executive of the TB Alliance, a non-profit research group based in New York.
"Even in the U.S., where we have one of the lowest rates in the world, we still have over 10,000 patients every year who get TB."
Spigelman said that number pales in comparison to the 9 million people globally who get TB.
"It's still in the U.S., we just don't recognize it."
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Gross.
TB took out many US citizens in the twenties. My own grandfather suffered and died from it. He would not rest long enough to regain his health and would go back out too soon to provide for his family. The disease killed him when he was still a very young man. People living on skid row would have little chance of surviving this disease. They will spread the disease if it they are not quarantined. For many of these skid row homeless people being under the control of others would be terrifying.
I love horses and can't imagine eating one.I raised several nice saddle horses back in the seventies near Santa Cruz,Cal.and my neighbor back in 1975 offered me fresh horsemeat for dinner of course I said No back, others back then said it was quite lean and tasty.Thank whoever for stopping the sale of horsemeat to the general public.I would become a vegetarian if horsemeat were ever offered for sale in this country again
I am vegetarian, because animals are innocent.
However, Heidi, this article is about TB amongst homeless people.
I don't believe that I understand the statistics. 4,650 homeless people this past year in LA county, or in the past 5 years in LA county, yet typical around 10,000 a year in the US? 4,650 homeless people with TB in 5 years, in one county is unbelievable, but in one year it is UNBELIEVABLE.
That is terrible!
This is the biggest mafia conspiracy that is giving profit to State lawmakers while once again, causing so much grief, pain and horror to our American animals and citizens. It is also something that will cause damage to US citizens as vaccines that are fed to horses are very damaging to humans. Without horses we would not have been able to settle this country, they can remember dance stanzas for over 12 years and humans for 20 years. All these misanthropic trolls that are posting here must be working for pay and that's so sad, sad for them, I wont know them or let them get to me, but ..... if we all get together as citizens and ask for an investigation as to how our wonderful horses can be shipped across state lines for profit - RICO - we might be able to get this stopped. We don't eat our pets and many of these animals are considered pets to US citizens. Let's show our humanity to the world and our lawmakers. Thank you for listening to me.
What the heck are you talking about? and what does TB have to do with horses in the mafia Just because a horse has TB does not mean it will join the mafia. Sometimes you people say the darndest things.
It IS the same old nazi spys doing both-yes it is a warfare,they actually PAY people with TB to spit on people-we caught some of the old spies in Inland Empire,Ca-I am UN ,Wright Brothers relative,we had International criminal court shut down route 66 car show and some air show because they are using D.O.T.Wright comm. and UN vehicles that the cops stole-they are retaliating.
i hope all of the californians get TB, and then i hope it gets to all of the cities,quick way to get rid of a bunch of liberals
eat soil, soilworm.
I agree, the way you slice through all logic and get right to the inane is brilliant. You have totaly eliminated any signs that there was any thought process used in that statement.
There was a TB ward at the county hospital in the Antelope Valley years ago. Then they were able to close
it down. Around 2000 it was reopened due to the number of new cases in L.A. County. This is also due
to the number of people entering the U.S. from countries were it had not been controlled. Now it's twelve
years later and 'they' are just now bringing it to every ones attention ??????????