CDC releases 1998 totals; again, numbers look good
Down 8% last year, 31% since 1992
The final report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on last year’s TB cases is out. To the surprise of no one, there was cause for, if not outright celebration, at least a round of polite applause. Nationwide, the tally for last year stood at 18,361 cases reported nationwide, down 8% over the previous year and 31% from 1992, the high-water mark of the resurgence.
The CDC report devoted lots of space to an overview of trends witnessed over the past six years. A comparison reminds readers that the TB resurgence scarcely touched many states to begin with; thus, of 18 states reporting fewer than 100 cases last year, 17 of them reported fewer than 100 cases six years ago.
On the other side of the coin, the handful of states most affected by the resurgence can likewise take credit for most of the last six years’ decline. California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas still registered the highest case loads last year, accounting for 54% of all reported cases; at the same time, those six years provided 68% of the decrease between 1993 and last year.
Four big cities in those states deserve especially big pats on the back. New York has witnessed a six-year drop in cases amounting to 59%; in Los Angeles, the same comparison shows a drop of 51%; and in Chicago and Houston, the six-year decline stands at 41%.
Two demographic groups — kids under 15, and adults from 25 to 44 — saw the biggest share of the six-year decrease. The last six years saw a modest increase of 4% in case numbers among the foreign-born. As transmission slowed among "home-grown" cases, the foreign-born began claiming an increasingly large share of the case total, from 27% in 1992 to 42% in 1998.
On the drug-resistance front, with 91% of cases reporting drug-susceptibility data, 8.1% of all cases last year had isolates resistant to at least isoniazid, and 1.1% showed resistance to both isoniazid and rifampin.
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