March 25, 2002
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Tim Hadac, 312-747-9805

Tuberculosis in Chicago Drops to All-Time Low

But TB Success Here Challenged By Disease Elsewhere

While the number of newly-diagnosed tuberculosis (TB) cases in Chicago dropped to an all-time low in 2001, the continuing TB epidemic worldwide presents a significant challenge to local public health successes, leading health officials said today.

"As declining TB case numbers show, our public health efforts in Chicago are on the right track-yet, immigration, migration and increased international travel are making the world a smaller place," stated Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Commissioner John Wilhelm, M.D. "That means that the public health problems of other nations are our problems, more than ever."

Officials made the warning about the lung disease as part of a World TB Day conference sponsored by the Metropolitan Chicago Tuberculosis Coalition, an alliance of pubic health agencies, private health providers, academia, advocacy organizations and others.

CDPH data show that there were 378 newly-diagnosed cases of active TB in Chicago in 2001. While the figures are not yet final, it is clear that TB in Chicago has been cut in half in less than a decade. In 1993, for example, there were 798 newly-diagnosed cases.

The conference in Chicago coincided with World Health Organization (WHO) press conferences in New York, Washington, Paris and other major cities. At those events the WHO issued a warning that if the worldwide TB epidemic is not confronted successfully in the next two years, tuberculosis could become the "principal epidemic of the next decade" in the United States and Europe.

Worldwide, TB kills approximately two million people every year and causes more death that any other infectious disease. In developing countries, tuberculosis accounts for more than one-fourth of all preventable deaths.

"People born outside the U.S. comprise a steadily increasing share of all new TB cases in the Chicago area," added CDPH Deputy Commissioner William Paul, M.D. "Clearly, there is a need for public health agencies and other providers to review their methods and ensure that their TB control and prevention services are reaching all immigrant communities effectively.

"In Chicago, TB is in decline in large part because of the consistent and substantial support public health agenices receive from a broad range of interests, including Mayor Daley and other elected officials," Dr. Paul continued. "The challenge for us all is to insist that national and international organizations devote comparable levels of resources for TB control efforts around the world."

March 24 has been proclaimed World TB Day in Chicago by Mayor Richard M. Daley, and is similarly observed worldwide to honor Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the bacillus that causes TB.