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Health Fact Sheets

Tuberculosis

Globally, at least one person is infected with TB each second, and someone dies of TB disease every twenty seconds.  Approximately one third of the world’s population is infected with TB.  Although it is both preventable and curable, TB disease accounts for more than one quarter of all preventable adult deaths in developing countries.

US Data:

In 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, 13,779 TB cases were reported in the United States.  This represents a decline of 2.1% from the number of cases reported in 2005.  The number of TB cases has declined steadily in the in the U.S. over the past decade, suggesting that the nation is recovering from the resurgence of TB that occurred in the mid-1980s, and is back on track toward TB elimination.  Between 1997 and 2006 there was a decline of 30.6% in the number of TB cases reported, or about 750 fewer cases per year on average.

Year US Cases Decrease from Previous Year
1996 21,337 ---
1997 19,851 6.96 %
1998 18,361 7.50 %
1999 17,531 4.52 %
2000 16,377 6.58 %
2001 15,945 2.64 %
2002 15,056 5.58 %
2003 14,838 1.45 %
2004 14,502 2.26 %
2005 14,080 2.90 %
2006 13,779 2.14 %

Tennessee Data:

  • In 2007, 234 cases of TB were reported for the State of Tennessee, which represents a decrease of 15.8% from the number of cases reported in the state in 2006.  The TB case rate for 2007 was 3.8 cases per 100,000 population.
  • More males were reported with tuberculosis in Tennessee than females; in 2007, 150 cases (64.1%) were male, and 84 (35.9%) were female.
  • In 2007, the age group with the largest percentage of reported TB cases in Tennessee was the 25-44 year old age group (34.6% of all cases), followed by the those aged 45 to 64 years (29.1% of all cases), those aged 65 years or greater (23.5% of all cases), and lastly, the 0-24 age group (12.8% of all cases).
  • There were 4 TB cases aged 0-4 and 6 cases aged 5-14 – this is an important reduction from last year since it may signify that children with TB infection have been identified quickly, resulting in fewer cases of active TB.
  • The racial/ethnic breakdown of Tennessee TB cases reported in 2007 was as follows: Non-Hispanic Black, 39.7% (93 cases); Non-Hispanic White, 35.9% (83 cases); Hispanic, 15.4% (36 cases); Asian/Pacific Islander 8.1% (20 cases); American Indian/Alaskan Native, 0.4% (1 case); Multiple races, 0.4% (1 case).
  • TB cases born outside of the U.S. comprised 29.5% of the reported TB cases in 2007.  This is a four-fold increase in the number of foreign-born TB cases from 7.3% of all cases reported in 1997.  Of the 69 foreign-born cases reported in 2007, 20.3% were from Mexico, 14.5% were from India, 13.0% were from Guatemala, 8.7% were from Somalia, and 5.8% were from Vietnam.  Individuals from 18 other countries represented 37.7% of the total foreign-born cases in 2007.
  • In 2007, 8.1% of reported TB cases in Tennessee were identified as being homeless in the year prior to diagnosis.
  • In 2007, 6.8% of reported TB cases in Tennessee were residents of a correctional facility at the time of diagnosis. 
  • By self-report in 2007, 20% of the state’s TB cases engaged in excessive alcohol use.
  • The percentage of TB cases co-infected with HIV was 9.8% in 2007.  Among HIV co-infected TB cases, 86.9% were between the ages of 25 and 44.