California Agency Issues ‘Health Advisory’ on Tuberculosis

Officials in California recently issued a “health advisory” after a “substantial increase” in the number of cases of the deadly bacterial infection. The state reported around 2,100 cases of active tuberculosis, or TB, last year, or a 15 percent jump from the previous year, officials said in a recent report. Many of the cases involved are people with latent infections that later became active, which allowed them to develop symptoms and spread it to other people, according to the California Department of Public Health. As a result, the agency in late March sent out a “health advisory” to health care providers across the state to be aware of the increase in cases, adding they should consider tuberculosis in the “differential diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia or other respiratory illnesses, particularly among patients with a risk factor for TB or with prolonged symptoms.”...