XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: cocksuckers@sacramento.ca.gov   
      
   Tuberculosis cases in Los Angeles County rose 7% last year,   
   public health officials reported Thursday.   
      
   The increase, from 625 in 2012 to 666 in 2013, occurred "mainly   
   among the homeless," Department of Public Health Director Dr.   
   Jonathan Fielding wrote to the county Board of Supervisors.   
      
   The potentially deadly disease, which attacks the lungs, has   
   been spreading among the county's homeless since 2007.  In 2012,   
   officials reported 39 cases of tuberculosis among homeless   
   Angelenos; in 2013, there were 65 cases.   
      
   Last year, concerns about the illness — "the largest outbreak in   
   a decade," Fielding said at the time — led to a coordinated   
   effort between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and   
   Prevention, county health staff and shelter workers to seek out   
   and treat infected homeless people, as well as more then 4,600   
   others who came in contact with them and also may have been   
   exposed to the disease.   
      
   The bacteria that cause tuberculosis can spread through the air   
   in the droplets created when an infected person coughs, sneezes   
   or laughs.  The bacteria can live for decades in a person's body   
   without sickening them — a condition known as latent TB   
   infection — only to become active later.  Active TB disease   
   causes illness and can spread from person to person. Left   
   untreated, it can be fatal.   
      
   Fielding's letter to the supervisors described the ongoing   
   effort to combat tuberculosis in the homeless population but   
   noted that the group "poses challenges for TB control" because   
   homeless people move about often; live in crowded conditions;   
   and have concurrent medical, mental health and nutritional   
   issues that make them more susceptible to developing active TB   
   disease.   
      
   Fielding wrote that the 65 cases reported among Los Angeles'   
   homeless, "while important...do not represent a threat to the   
   general population."   
      
   Most of the county's tuberculosis cases  — 79% — occurred in   
   foreign-born people who carried their infections with them when   
   they immigrated to the U.S. Thursday's update did not include   
   new statistics on TB deaths. In February, The Times reported   
   that 11 people had died in the skid row outbreak since 2007.   
      
   Also on Thursday, the CDC released its own report on   
   tuberculosis trends for 2013.  Nationwide, cases of the deadly   
   disease were down 4.2%, but four states — California, Texas, New   
   York and Florida — accounted for half of the TB cases reported   
   in 2013.   
      
   In their report, CDC researchers wrote that TB rates among   
   homeless people nationwide were estimated to be 36 to 47 per   
   100,000 population: about 10 times greater than overall TB   
   incidence during that period.   
      
   http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tuberculosis-   
   homeless-20140320,0,5349954.story#axzz2wYq8FUei   
      
       
      
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