Editorial

New Face of the Old Foe: Central Nervous System Tuberculosis

Authors: Jay B. Mehta, MD, FCCP

Abstract

The Centers for Disease Control reported 14,511 confirmed tuberculosis (TB) cases in the United States for the year 2004, with a rate of 4.9/100,000 representing a 3.3% decline from the previous year. This finding indicates that although the 2004 TB rate was the lowest recorded since 1953, the rate of decline was the smallest since 1993. In the pre-AIDS era, the annual decline of the TB case rate was approximately 7%. In 2004, Hispanics, Blacks and Asians had TB case rates of 7.5, 8.3, and 20.0 times higher than whites respectively.1While multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB posed a great challenge in 2002, MDR TB cases represented only 1% of the total cases in 2004. It is a sad reality that TB continues to remain a major health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates 8 million new cases in 2004 with one million deaths from a disease that is both treatable and preventable.

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References

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