In a recent report, Tuberculosis is witnessing a ‘substantial surge’ in the number of cases in California, according to a state health official.
In a report released by the California Department of Public Health, California is witnessing a fifteen percent spike in the bacterial disease cases in comparison to the last year reports. With 1842 cases in 2022, in 2023 the numbers have gradually increased to 2113. Besides, according to the officials, the number of cases were not as high before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Julie Higashi, who is the director of the L.A.county tuberculosis control program, explained that the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, is spreaded by air. Contrary from CoronaVirus infection which is likely to spread in minutes, an individual has to share physical contact for hours in order to receive the TB virus that will eventually lead to the infection.
In the same media interaction, Dr.Higashi added,
Not only can you treat the active disease, you can also treat the latent disease, which is much easier to treat — fewer drugs, much shorter time — and then prevent that progression to the active form of disease.
Besides, the outbreaks can also occur locally. In a similar series of instances, previously in Contra Costa County, 11 confirmed cases were connected to the California Grand Casino staff members and customers. Not only this, but almost 10 confirmed cases were genetically linked.
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In the same series of data released by the California Department of Public Health, most of the confirmed cases of Tuberculosis have been raised from the populous coastal areas. Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and Imperial counties, that lie in Southern California, have the highest number of cases. On the other hand, in Northern California, the areas, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Joaquin, Solano, Monterey and Napa counties, were reported to have the highest cases of Tuberculosis.
