The United States experienced the lowest number of tuberculosis cases in 2016 since the CDC began tallying TB infections in 1953, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
While the CDC's estimated provisional total of 9,287 new TB cases in 2016 is the lowest count on record for the U.S. and represents a 2.7 percent decrease from the year prior, the goal of eradicating TB in the U.S. will likely not be met in this century without significantly strengthening TB infection control programs, according to the report.
"We can't yet say whether this slight decline will continue," Phil LoBue, MD, director of CDC's Division for TB Elimination, told The Huffington Post via email. "However, in order to accelerate progress toward TB elimination, we're going to have to take a new approach that focuses on both strengthening these existing TB control systems and broadening responsibility for latent TB infection testing and treatment efforts."
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Latent TB is a condition in which Mycobacterium tuberculosis lies dormant in the body without inciting illness. Approximately 13 million people in the U.S. have latent TB, 5 to 10 percent of whom will eventually develop the active form of the disease.
Uncertainty regarding the future of funding for TB control spurred by the release of President Trump's proposed budget on March 16, which included an 18 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health, has incited concern among some TB experts. The CDC and NIH regularly collaborate on TB control.
"Cuts to funding could impact local and state health department TB prevention services. This could mean weakening the capacity of these health departments to investigate contacts of persons with TB disease or limiting their ability to analyze [the] DNA of TB bacteria to test for drug resistance," Dr. LoBue told The Huffington Post. "This could lead to increases in TB cases and costs for the healthcare system."
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