A digitally colored scan of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause tuberculosis in human beings, courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Although tuberculosis cases have been on the rise, public Health departments say they lack the resources to stop the disease from spreading. Until COVID-19, tuberculosis was the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing about 1.5 million people annually. Despite common belief, the disease is still active in the United States. The number of TB cases in the U.S. briefly dropped at the start of the pandemic, but there was a 5% increase in cases in 2022, according to the latest numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some states like Alaska, Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington have exceeded their pre-pandemic figures, according to a CDC report. This situation has led to a lack of awareness about tuberculosis in the U.S., and health departments at the state and local levels do not have enough resources to prevent and control its spread. The disease spreads through the air when a person with an active infection coughs or sneezes. While it mainly attacks the lungs, it can also affect other parts of the body, including the kidneys, spine, and brain. The treatment for tuberculosis involves a months-long regimen of multiple antibiotics, and it can be very costly. Additionally, people from foreign-born and diverse communities are disproportionately affected by tuberculosis, and the disease’s prevalence is a product of structural barriers to health care—such as crowded living conditions—and risk factors. Moreover, funding for tuberculosis prevention and control has been declining over the years, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the situation, leading to a significant increase in vacancies in public health departments since 2016. This phenomenon has left the public health system in crisis, unable to properly address the growing issue. Consequently, the situation has resulted in a rise in TB rates in some states. For example, Alaska and Texas have seen an increase in cases, and local health departments are struggling to keep busy with the additional workload. Efforts are being made to try and catch cases, but obstacles still remain due to a lack of funding for prevention, treatment, and control. It is essential for the public to be educated about this issue to address the stagnation in resources. It is imperative for the government to allocate more funding and support to state and local health departments to effectively combat the spread of tuberculosis and protect vulnerable communities.
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