On World TB Day, March 24, 2002, Public Health stresses TB is not a disease of the past

KING COUNTY, WA - When a local professional baseball player was reported to have tuberculosis (TB) last fall, many baseball fans and citizens of King County realized that TB is not just a disease of the past. On World TB Day this March 24th, Public Health - Seattle & King County is stressing the significant advances in TB prevention and treatment, but also recognizing that TB still affects segments of our population and is a major killer worldwide.

"Tuberculosis definitely remains a global public health concern. In our county, we fortunately have the resources to treat this once deadly disease and in most cases prevent it," said Dr. Alonzo Plough, Director of Public Health - Seattle & King County. "We can sustain our local successes through continued hard work by Public Health and our partners in the health care community."

Around the world, tuberculosis kills about two million individuals a year. King County has over 100 TB cases per year, which falls within the national average for its population. However, the disease in King County has not always been under control.

When Seattle's first TB treatment facility, Firland Sanatorium, opened in 1914 with beds for 150 adults and 25 children, health officials estimated that there were 4,000 cases of TB in Seattle. Since then, prevention and treatment programs have brought the numbers dramatically down.

"Our efforts in King County are nationally recognized since we have excelled at developing new approaches to prevent TB in a large international community," said Dr. Charles Nolan of Public Health's TB Control Program.

"Locally, the annual number of TB cases during the last two decades has remained fairly stable," said Dr. Stefan Goldberg of Public Health's TB Control Program. "Until TB is brought under control globally, preventing future cases locally will depend on continued local efforts and innovation."

TB facts

• TB usually involves the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can infect almost any organ in the body.
• TB can spread only from an untreated person with active disease in the lungs who is coughing. TB bacteria from a person's lungs are expelled into the air, and may be inhaled into the lungs of another person.
• The most common symptoms are cough, (usually for more than three weeks), cough with blood, tiredness, weight loss, fever, chills and night sweats. These symptoms usually come on gradually over a period of weeks.
• TB is not very infectious. It is much harder to catch than the common cold.
• It is not possible to get TB from sharing a glass with a person with TB or touching a doorknob after someone with TB has used it.

World TB day, March 24, commemorates the day in 1882 when the German physician, Robert Koch, announced his discovery of the bacteria that cause TB. Later, physicians and scientists discovered the drugs that currently make this disease preventable and curable.

For more information on TB Control Program in King County, please visit: www.kingcounty.gov/health/tb