Topline
Almost a dozen tuberculosis cases were traced back to a northern California casino between 2018 and 2023, as a new report by the World Health Organization found TB cases were at an all-time high in 2022, responsible for more than a million deaths annually.
Key Facts
Health officials are urging people who visited California Grand Casino in Northern California between 2018 and 2023 to get tested for tuberculosis after 11 cases were traced back to the casino since 2018, according to a warning issued last week by Contra County Health.
Of the 11 cases, the bacteria of 10 are genetically linked and most are associated with staff or visitors—the last case has yet to be genetically tested.
Although CCH has yet to identify an ongoing source of transmission, the agency has so far contacted more than 300 people who may have been exposed to TB.
TB is an infectious bacterial disease that typically affects the lungs, which the World Health Organization labeled as one of the world’s “top infectious killers.”
Around 7.5 million people were diagnosed with TB in 2022, the highest number since WHO began monitoring the disease around 30 years ago, according to WHO’s annual TB report released Tuesday.
Forbes has reached out to California Grand Casino for comment.
Big Number
1.3 million. That’s how many people died from TB globally in 2022, according to WHO’s TB report. This made it the second-leading cause of death from a single infectious agent in 2022, following the coronavirus. It caused twice as many deaths as HIV/AIDS.
Crucial Quote
“TB can live inside someone for years without showing signs of its presence,” Meera Sreenivasan, deputy health officer for CCH said in a statement. “That is why it’s important to take a test, even if you do not feel sick.”
Key Background
TB is spread from person to person when bacteria enters the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This can happen when a person with TB of the throat or lungs sneezes, coughs, sings or talks, causing people nearby to breathe in the bacteria. Once in the lungs, the bacteria can grow and spread to other parts of the body, like the brain, kidneys or spine. However, TB is only infectious when present in the throat or lungs, no other place. TB cannot be spread by sharing foods or drinks, shaking hands, kissing, sharing toothbrushes or touching toilet seats or beds. Most people who breathe in TB bacteria are able to stop them from growing; when the bacteria stay inside the body without making the person sick, this is called latent TB. These people have no symptoms, can’t spread TB to other people, typically test positive for TB and can develop TB disease if they don’t take medicine to stop it from growing. Once TB bacteria becomes active it becomes infectious. Symptoms include weight loss, night sweats, fever, loss of appetite, a persistent cough that lasts more than three weeks, swelling that won’t go away and fatigue.
Tangent
Although TB deaths declined in 2022 (1.3 million) compared to 2020 and 2021 (1.4 million), new cases were at an all-time high. WHO believes this is due to a “sizable backlog” of people who developed the disease over the last few years, but delayed getting tested because of the Covid pandemic. WHO also labeled antibiotic-resistant TB as a “public health crisis.” Over 400,000 people developed multidrug-resistant TB or TB resistant to rifampicin, a first line TB drug, in 2022. However, the success rate for treating drug-resistant TB was 63% globally, according to WHO’s report.
Fight Against Tuberculosis Bounces Back After Pandemic—But TB Remains One Of The World’s Biggest Killers, WHO Says (Forbes)
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