Sedgwick County, Kansas Works to Fight Rise in Tuberculosis

Health authorities are stepping up efforts to fight TB in Sedgwick County (Wichita), Kan., which accounted for almost a third of the state's reported cases last year. Nationally, TB has been dropping since 1995, falling from 8.7 cases per 100,000 people to 5.2 in 2002. But the rate in Kansas increased from 3.1 in 1995 to 3.3 last year. Twenty-nine of the 89 TB cases reported in Kansas last year were in Sedgwick County, and so far this year the county has seen 14 cases, said Peggy Baker, supervisor for the county health department's TB control clinic. The county's cases cross all racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The department, which previously had one TB nurse and one interpreter, is adding a second nurse to focus more on prevention.

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