NEWS - Drug-resistant TB cases rise in US

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Drug-resistant TB cases rise in U.S.

Items compiled from Tribune news services

Published March 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis are increasing

in the U.S., as is the fraction of those cases that is resistant to at least

five antimicrobial drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the

U.S. had 128 cases of multidrug-resistant TB in 2004, up from 113 the year

before. That was the first increase in a decade.

Also, the proportion of hard-to-treat cases that are " extensively drug

resistant " rose from 3.9 percent in the 1993-96 period to 4.5 percent during

2001-04.

Overall, TB's decline continues in the U.S. The per capita rate of the lung

infection last year was the lowest since the government began collecting

data in 1953. The report was timed for World TB Day Friday.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0603240125mar24,1,2969759.sto\

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Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org