Dickinson-Iron County Critical Health Indicators

Home         Critical Health Indicator Index       PDF View/Download

Tuberculosis                                                                                           

What Is It?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease that is spread through airborne respiratory substances (or droplets) released through a cough or a sneeze. People in close contact with persons with infectious TB are at greater risk for infection. TB mainly affects the lungs and can possibly spread to bones and other parts of the body. TB can stay in the human body for many years before causing active disease.

How are Dickinson and Iron Counties doing?

Again, the DIDHD statistics from 1989 to 1998, are not significant for the number of tuberculosis cases in the two counties. During the period Dickinson and Iron Counties ranged from zero to two cases per year. The last case of active tuberculosis in a Dickinson or Iron County resident was reported in 2001. During the past 10 years, there has been no reported deaths due to all forms of TB.

Click on the map below to show the County specific rates.

How does the Dickinson-Iron District Health Department compare with Michigan?

Dickinson and Iron County's rate has been consistently lower than the rate for the State of Michigan with only one case reported in the last two years. The State of Michigan in 1998 had 385 cases of TB.

How are different populations affected?

The highest age-specific TB incidence rates are among the elderly. Other groups at higher risk of contracting TB are the homeless, alcoholics and substance abusers, those infected with HIV/AIDS, and those born in countries with a high prevalence of TB. Members of these groups are at higher risk if they live in an urban setting.

What other information is important to know?

Two preventive measures are used against the spread of tuberculosis. First is the very limited use of a specific vaccine in certain high-risk individuals. The second involves skin testing relatives and close friends of a person who has tuberculosis and providing prophylactic medication to those who have a positive skin test, but no evidence of active tuberculosis. Early detection of active cases diminishes the risk of spreading the disease by allowing for early treatment and isolation.

If properly treated, tuberculosis caused by drug-susceptible strains is curable in virtually all cases. If untreated, the disease is fatal in more than half the cases within five years. The incidence of drug-resistant TB has been increasing during the 1990s.

What is the Dickinson-Iron District Health Department doing to affect this indicator?

The general public is under the impression that tuberculosis is a disease that we do not have to be concerned about any longer. However, tuberculosis cannot be forgotten as it has been documented that tuberculosis is again on the rise in the state and across the nation.

This trend is believed to be largely due to the development of active TB in individuals with depressed immunity secondary to infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS, and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. It is therefore important to continue actively searching for individuals infected with the tuberculosis bacteria and to provide adequate preventive therapy when indicated.

The Health Department continues to offer TB skin testing and during 2000, 298 skin tests were given. In addition, local hospitals routinely skin test employees and high risk patients, and nursing homes test their staff and patients.

Individuals found to have positive skin tests are either seen by their private physicians or referred to the Health Department for appropriate follow-up including a medical evaluation, chest x-rays, skin testing of close contacts and preventive chemotherapy when indicated.