California public health authorities delivered excellent news recently when they announced that the number of tuberculosis cases reported in 2009 had dropped by the largest margin in nearly a decade. <\/p>\n
The number of cases fell to 2,472 – from 2,695 in 2008, and almost 3,300 at the start of the decade, according to the California Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n
The decline is a testament to hard work and foresight on the part of county public health officers across California and at the state level.<\/p>\n
But there are warning signs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration has held funding steady at $8.2 million this year and in the coming year.<\/p>\n
The bulk is earmarked for counties where the hard work combating the disease takes place. But cash-strapped counties are having a hard time keeping up with spending demands.<\/p>\n
The state is providing $566,788 to Sacramento County this year, plus additional money for housing and related medical needs. The county provides the rest of TB program spending, $3.7 million. That is down by almost $840,000 from the prior year. A similar cut is contemplated in the coming year.<\/p>\n
Such cuts take a toll. Consider the rebound of syphilis. At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of 2000, there was a realistic hope that syphilis would be relegated to history. As a result, money to combat it was cut. <\/p>\n
An outbreak in prison spread it outside the prison walls. In time, it jumped to heterosexuals. <\/p>\n
In 1999, Sacramento County recorded two cases of syphilis, and one in 2000. By 2008, there were 91 cases, up from 62 the year before.<\/p>\n
Lately, Sacramento County public health authorities have identified pregnant women who have the disease. That poses a serious threat, since syphilis can cause a variety of birth defects and mental retardation.<\/p>\n
The fight against communicable disease is labor-intensive. Public health officers must follow individuals with tuberculosis to make certain they do not spread it and are taking drugs to cure it.<\/p>\n
California leads the nation in reported tuberculosis cases, with roughly 1,000 more than the next nearest state, Texas. Although the disease is a problem among certain immigrant communities, infectious disease knows no boundary or class.<\/p>\n
Tuberculosis spreads when infected people cough or sneeze. It usually attacks the lungs and generally is treatable, although at least 197 people died of it in California in 2008.<\/p>\n
State and county officials who control funding must understand that even in tough budgetary times, cuts in public health produce false savings. As the re-emergence of syphilis shows, communicable diseases that once appeared to be under control have a habit of reappearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
California public health authorities delivered excellent news recently when they announced that the number of tuberculosis cases reported in 2009 had dropped by the largest margin in nearly a decade. The number of cases fell to 2,472 – from 2,695 in 2008, and almost 3,300 at the start of the decade, according to the California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}