Illinois: Mobile Clinic to Fight TB in Cook County

The Suburban Cook County, Ill., Sanitarium District will soon start a mobile clinic to reach immigrants who contracted TB in their native countries and have settled in Chicago suburbs, far from traditional clinics set up to treat them. In suburban Cook County, immigrants make up a higher percentage of active TB cases every year. In 1999, foreign-born people accounted for 45 percent of active cases in the suburbs. In 2001, they accounted for nearly 60 percent of cases -- the highest rate ever.

Without aggressive TB outreach programs, Dr. James B. Gallai, head of field operations for SCCSD, said he would "guarantee the numbers would rise." Outreach programs have kept the number of active cases in the suburbs at about 140 cases a year since 1999. Still, health officials estimate there could be an additional 80,000 to 140,000 people in the suburbs with latent TB. If untreated, about a tenth of those cases will develop into active TB, which is contagious.

"Over the last 10 years we've treated roughly 50,000 cases of latent TB," Gallai said. "Theoretically, that means we've prevented about 5,000 active cases."

Health officials are targeting the suburbs -- from Cicero to Schaumburg to Skokie -- where active TB cases have been found. They will conduct free testing and hand out TB information translated into a dozen languages, including Spanish, Polish, Russian, Italian, Hindu, Portuguese and Punjabi. Officials will unveil a $200,000 mobile TB clinic in early December. Soon after, a doctor, a nurse and an X-ray technician will begin making the rounds in the custom-made, 35-foot converted mobile home, complete with reception, consultation, interview, X-ray and darkroom areas.

Immigrants must show they do not have active TB when applying for legal entry, but because the disease can remain dormant for years, health officials say immigrants should be screened in America too.

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