As rates decline, TB doctors worry about being a ``victim of success''

ATLANTA - Tuberculosis cases are declining in Georgia as they continue to fall nationwide, according to a report from the state Division of Public Health. <br> <br> There was a 17 percent decrease in the number of TB cases between 2000 and 2001, according to the report, which was released earlier this month. There were 575 TB cases in 2001 and 696 cases in 2000. <br> <br> Despite the decrease, health groups worry that the state&#39;s TB programs will deteriorate as state budgets tighten. <br> <br> ``We don&#39;t want to suffer from our success,&#39;&#39; said June Deen, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association. ``We&#39;re concerned that because of the growing budget deficit in the state, programs that do well like the TB program may suffer.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Health officials have weathered shrinking budgets for TB control over the last two years. Last year, the budget was cut by 5 percent; this fiscal year, there was a 2.5 percent cut, said Dr. Rose-Marie Sales, chief of the public health division&#39;s TB epidemiology section. <br> <br> The worst-case scenario, health officials say, would mirror the mid-1980s, when TB rates across the country shot up after funding declined during the 1970s, when TB rates were low. It took until the early 1990s for state and federal officials to rebuild and re-fund TB programs to drive the disease&#39;s rates down again, said Wanda Walton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <br> <br> ``There is the concern of complacency,&#39;&#39; Walton said. ``Any case of TB can be an outbreak so we need to be very vigilant about tuberculosis.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Earlier this year, the CDC reported that the nation&#39;s 15,991 cases of TB in 2001 was the ninth consecutive year of decline of the respiratory disease in the United States. But the decrease was less than in previous years. <br> <br> In Georgia, there&#39;s still cause for worry. The state&#39;s TB case rate of 6.9 cases per 100,000 people is the seventh highest in the nation. The national average is 5.6 cases per 100,000 people. <br> <br> Among the state&#39;s homeless, TB cases increased by 26 percent in 2001, ending five previous consecutive years of decline. Grady Memorial Hospital, which diagnoses 90 percent of Fulton County&#39;s TB cases, last year spent $1.5 million to treat indigent TB patients, Sales said. <br> <br> In addition, state health officials said they are working to prevent disparities among racial groups. Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi have the highest proportion of blacks with TB in the country, Sales said. <br> <br> Black people made up 61 percent of the state&#39;s TB cases although they represent 29 percent of the state population. Some poor neighborhoods in Fulton County have TB rates that approach 100 cases per 100,000 population. A quarter of the state&#39;s cases were from Fulton County, state officials said. <br> <br> Tuberculosis is a bacteria that&#39;s spread from one person to another when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs or sneezes. Others then can breathe in the bacteria and become infected. It is treatable if detected early and treated promptly, health officials said.