The Florida Department of Health in Orange County’s (DOH-Orange) Tuberculosis (TB) Program celebrated World TB Day this past weekend with an outreach event at the Parramore Farmers Market. Around the world and within our country, people suffer for TB.  Anyone can get TB, and current efforts to find and treat latent TB infection and TB disease are not sufficient.  Misdiagnosis of TB still exists and health care professional often do not “think TB.”  This year’s theme is “Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world. We can make history. End TB,” which focuses on working together to eliminate the deadly disease. 

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s deadliest disease:

• One third of the world’s population is infected with TB.
• 1 in 10 people with latent TB infection will develop TB disease.
• It is the leading killer of people with HIV infection.
• TB is preventable and curable, Yet, too many people in the US still suffer from this disease.
• Up to 13 million people in the US are estimated to have latent TB infection.

DOH-Orange’s Tuberculosis program consists of an outreach program and clinical services.  The outreach component includes investigation and testing of those exposed to active cases of TB along with direct observed medication therapy of active TB cases.  Clinical services provide the diagnosis and treatment of persons with active TB disease along with comprehensive case management of active cases and those suspected of having TB.  Appropriate treatment is crucial to achieving the eliminate goal of eliminating TB a s public health problem in Florida. 

For more information on World TB Day, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at https://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday.