Urgent warning as New York clinics struggle to cope with surge of world’s most infectious bug
A SURGE of one of the world’s most infectious diseases has left New York’s health clinics struggling to cope, health workers have revealed.
Tuberculosis (TB) infections jumped to 500 in the first nine months of this year, a 20 per cent increase from the same time period in 2022, figures suggest.
The data shared with US news website, Politico, suggests that the city is on track to mark the most TB cases seen in a year since 2013.
Experts fear the deadly medieval disease may be making a comeback, decades after the city got infection rates under control.
TB is caused by the bacteria mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer.
It usually infects the lungs, causing coughing, a fever and fatigue.
However, it can spread to your brain, spinal cord and area around your heart, causing more severe disease, and it can be fatal.
NYC’s designated TB clinics are struggling to cope with the increase in patients, as wait lists for treatments become concerning long, three employees of the city Department of Health’s Bureau of Tuberculosis Control told the website.
New Yorkers with symptoms are being forced to wait up to a week for an appointment, the anonymous employees said.
Early diagnosis and treatment of TB is crucial to prevent transmission of the disease to others in the community, according to the World Health Organisation.
The long wait times have been attributed to a combination of the rise in cases, underfunding and understaffing.
Previously, health officials predicted a rise in cases after the Covid-19 pandemic hindered efforts to diagnose and treat cases.
However, Elizabeth Lovinger, of the Treatment Action Group, which focuses on TB, said: “This is definitely a more dramatic resurgence than we would have probably expected.”
TB has been relatively scarce in the US, since cases peaked decades ago during the Aids epidemic.
The disease is also currently on the rise in Europe.
In the WHO’s European Region – which comprises of 53 countries – 27,300 people died from TB in 2021, compared with 27,000 deaths in 2020.
The Covid pandemic’s disruption on treatment and diagnostic services has been cited as a reason for this surge.
This was the first time in 20 years the downward trend was broken, the WHO Europe said in a TB surveillance report.
To make matters worse, cases of drug-resistant TB also increased by three per cent between 2020 and 2021, the report said.
Infections in the UK jumped to 2,408 in the first half of this year, up from 2,251 last year, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
It said infections are higher in urban and more deprived areas, with homeless people more at risk.
What are the symptoms of TB?
Common symptoms include:
- a cough that lasts more than 3 weeks – you may cough up mucus (phlegm) or mucus with blood in it
- feeling tired or exhausted
- a high temperature or night sweats
- loss of appetite
- weight loss
- feeling generally unwell
If TB has spread to another part of your body such as your glands (lymph nodes), bones or brain, you may also have other symptoms, including:
- swollen glands
- body aches and pains
- swollen joints or ankles
- tummy or pelvic pain
- constipation
- dark or cloudy pee
- a headache
- being sick
- feeling confused
- a stiff neck
- a rash on the legs, face or other part of the body
Source: The NHS