State and local public health officials are offering few details about the mysterious tuberculosis (TB) death of a patient first diagnosed last month at a hospital in Fremont, Nebraska.
An outbreak of 17 cases of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) has been reported in Ramsey County, the second most populous county in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health confirmed to Breitbart News on Monday.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger said, “Significant threats to public health are becoming more frequent and costly,” referencing measles, tuberculosis, and even the Zika virus and syphilis, according to a statement released by the MDH on Wednesday as reported by Hometownsource.com.
The number of active tuberculosis (TB) cases diagnosed in Minnesota increased 12 percent in 2016 to 168, up from 150 one year earlier, according to the Minnesota Department of Health’s (MDH) Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program’s Quarterly Surveillance Report, October 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016.
The Washtenaw County Public Health Department in Michigan is refusing to release refugee latent tuberculosis (TB) infection rates, the Washtenaw County Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Coordinator tells Breitbart News.
The number of cases of very dangerous, multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) reported in Massachusetts spiked 75 percent in 2015, to seven cases, up from four in 2014, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
At least five foreign-born cases of multi-drug resistant TB were diagnosed in Philadelphia over the past three years, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Tuberculosis Control Program.
All told, in the six years between 2010 and 2015, seven cases of MDR TB were diagnosed in the state of Tennessee, including the three Nashville cases. The Tennessee Department of Health confirms that two of these seven cases of MDR TB were refugees, four were foreign-born but not refugees, and one was U.S.-born.
As Breitbart News reported previously, twenty-one additional refugees in Wisconsin were diagnosed with active TB during the same time period, making the Badger State the refugee TB capital of the country, at least among the handful of states that have so far reported that data.
Wisconsin may not be the actual TB leader, though. Only eight of the forty nine states that resettle refugees under the federal refugee resettlement program have responded to Breitbart News requests to provide this important public health data, which resettlement agencies are required by law to monitor and report in each state.
“A vote for Paul Ryan is a vote to bring more TB to Wisconsin’s First Congressional District,” Paul Nehlen adds.
The introduction of MDR TB to the United States represents a serious public health threat, since its successful treatment is uncertain and very expensive. Active TB can usually be treated successfully in six to nine months at a cost of $17,000 per patient, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), but MDR TB treatment costs over $150,000 per patient and can take between 20 and 26 months.
