Expert Available to Discuss Status of Tuberculosis in America

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Dr. Lee B. Reichman, MPH, an internationally recognized tuberculosis expert, holds joint faculty appointments in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at UMDNJ. His work on advocating local solutions and support for global problems related to tuberculosis is important for the health, security, and quality of life of people in New Jersey and throughout the world.

Dr. Reichman Calls Tuberculosis “A Catastrophe in the Making”

For many Americans, tuberculosis may seem as remote as their childhood memories of lining up in high school gymnasiums with arms extended for a “TB test.” In fact, TB is a worldwide health problem and Americans are not immune. Tuberculosis kills 1.7 million people annually around the world and, in 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counted more than 13,000 cases of TB in this country. More locally, New Jersey had the seventh highest rate of infection in the country, with Jersey City, Newark, Paterson and Elizabeth among the New Jersey cities with the highest prevalence of the disease.

“It’s a catastrophe in the making,” said Dr. Lee B. Reichmann, MPH, the executive director of the Global Tuberculosis Institute at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. “More people die of TB than any other infectious disease and it is the leading killer of people with HIV. Among the groups of people at high risk for TB are the elderly, low-income groups with poor access to health care, health care workers and people who live in nursing homes, correctional facilities and homeless shelters.”

Under Reichman’s direction, the Global Tuberculosis Institute plays a leading role in the international arena, providing expertise in program development, education, training and research. In 2005, the CDC charged the Institute with strengthening the public health response to TB in the northeastern U.S. With support from CDC, the Institute established the Northeastern Regional Training and Medical Consultation Center, which covers 16 states from Indiana to Maine and the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and Detroit.

Increased funding and attention has resulted in a steady decline in the number of persons in the U.S. with TB since 1993, but the speed of decline has slowed since 2003. Recent years have also seen an increased incidence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) strains of the disease.

According to the Global Tuberculosis Institute, more than 70 percent of TB cases reported happen among racial and ethnic minorities. The overall figure is even higher in New Jersey, where Hispanic and Asian ethnic groups alone accounted for nearly 70 percent of the cases reported in 2007.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state’s three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.

Source: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)

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