The Long Beach City Council approved on Tuesday a $216,081 grant for the Department of Health and Human Services to help control and prevent tuberculosis — a disease that has slightly increased in Long Beach, according to the department data.
“In 2012, there were 34 reported TB cases, 2,202 TB referrals and 520 TB contacts in the City of Long Beach,” Kelly Colopy, director of Long Beach’s Department of Health and Human Services, said. “In 2013, there were 38 reported TB cases, 2,086 TB referrals and 2,682 TB contacts.”
Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease that usually grows in the lungs once the disease is transmitted. Colopy said that therapy to treat the illness is usually six to eight months.
Twenty-five cases of tuberculosis have been reported in Long Beach this year so far, she said.
Colopy said that the main contributor for funding tuberculosis prevention in Long Beach is the California Tuberculosis Control Branch.
“These funds have been used to support core public health [TB] control through preventive therapy, diagnosis and treatment of active TB disease and to conduct contact investigations to limit the spread of the disease,” Colopy said.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacterium that causes TB.
“In 2012, approximately 8.6 million people became ill with the disease, and an estimated 1.3 million people died,” Colopy said.
In Kern County, Eduardo Rosas Cruz was arrested last month for refusing treatment for his tuberculosis, according to San Joaquin county officials.
Cruz, 23, was diagnosed with tuberculosis in March after visiting an emergency room and talked about his severe cough.
Once he was diagnosed, medical staff told him to stay in a Stockton motel room, where a health worker would give Cruz medication. Unfortunately, officials said he took off, which ended his treatment.
Authorities said he now has to be medically cleared before sending him back to San Joaquin Valley.
In other recent news, a case of tuberculosis has been publicized at San Diego’s Lincoln High School, news outlet NBC San Diego reported Monday. Students had the chance to be tested at the high school for the disease last Tuesday.
The funds for tuberculosis prevention and control are for the period of July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015.