Las Vegas NowDrug-Resistant Forms of TB Showing Up in Clark County

Drug-Resistant Forms of TB Showing Up in Clark County

There are new details about the man the CDC says could have infected air travelers with tuberculosis. Health officials plan to move him to Denver for treatment, but have not yet announced when. For now, he remains in isolation in Atlanta.

The unidentified man was warned not to travel after discovering he had a drug-resistant form of TB, but he did anyway and now there is an international hunt to see if he may have spread the illness.

In the meantime, a local health official tells Eye on Health, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are showing up in Clark County.

Tuberculosis is spread by airborne micro bacteria. The infection usually attacks the lungs and can be fatal if not treated. TB normally responds to antibiotics, but the drug-resistant form, which the Atlanta man has, is very difficult to treat.

Mary Harrell with the Southern Nevada Health District says there are some of those cases here.

"The small number of cases that we have here, we have been able to treat," said Harrell. "Usually it takes us about two years of very extensive treatment with very specific types of antibiotics in order to cure the people of TB."     
  
Fortunately, the number of local cases has not increased but remained constant. In 2005, there were 90 local cases of TB. In 2006, there were 89 and so far this year, there have been 25 cases of TB reported in Clark County.

A person newly diagnosed with TB is usually quarantined.

"It's very devastating to the individual, to the entire family. It can be devastating to a small business," said Harrell.

Mary Harrell oversees a program in Clark County that monitors the transmission of the disease in Southern Nevada.

"We have people that are active out in the community actually looking for people who have TB, bringing them in for treatment. 

Until 50 years ago, there were no medicines to cure TB. Drugs were developed, but now we're seeing more drug resistant strains. Treatment is available, but usually at great costs.

The infected man who is in quarantine in Atlanta was on two trans-Atlantic flights. The first was on May 12, Air France flight 385 from Atlanta to Paris. The second was on May 24, Czech Air flight 410 from Prague to Montreal.

From Montreal, the infected man drove into the United States. The CDC is urging anyone who was onboard either of those flights to be checked immediately.