Decline in U.S. TB Cases Slowing, CDC Researchers Report
There were 9,412 new cases reported during 2014, with an incidence rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons. This was the smallest percentage decrease in a decade.
A new report published in CDC's MMWR shows that the United States did not progress in 2014 toward its goal of eliminating tuberculosis, and that the proportion of persons with TB who were foreign-born continued to increase. The CDC authors -- Colleen Scott, Hannah L. Kirking, Carla Jeffries, Sandy F. Price, and Robert Pratt -- reported there were 9,412 new tuberculosis cases reported in the United States during 2014, with an incidence rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons. This represented a decrease of 2.2 percent from 2013, a percentage decrease that is the smallest decrease in more than a decade.
Their report summarizes provisional TB surveillance data reported to CDC's National Tuberculosis Surveillance System for 2014. The case rate among foreign-born persons in the United States in 2014 was 13.4 times higher than among U.S.-born persons, and racial/ethnic minorities continue to be disproportionately affected by TB within the United States, they reported. Four states (California, Texas, New York, and Florida), representing approximately one third of the U.S. population, accounted for 4,795 cases, 50.9 percent of all new TB cases reported during the year.
"Continued progress toward TB elimination in the United States will require focused TB control efforts among populations and in geographic areas with disproportionate burdens of TB," the authors wrote.
While the national incidence rate in 2014 was 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons, by state it ranged from 0.3 in Vermont to 9.6 in Hawaii. Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C. had lower rates in 2014 than in 2013, but 21 states had higher rates.
Among persons 15 years old or older with TB, 5.5 percent of them reported being homeless within the past year, 2.2 percent were living in a long-term care facility at the time of TB diagnosis, and 4.2 percent were confined to a detention or correctional facility at the time of TB diagnosis.