"THE HEART OF THE MATTER"
a special program of the National Emergency Medicine Association (NEMA)
Week: 600.1
Guest: Dr. Lee Reichman, Nat’l Tuberculosis Program
Topic: Warnings on Tuberculosis
Reporter: Aaron Cohen
Host/Producer: Steve Girard
NEMA: The world’s biggest killer is on the rebound...coming up...
SPOT: 15 years in the prevention of heart disease, stroke and trauma - the National Emergency Medicine Association. Call 800-332- 6362.
NEMA: Tuberculosis is back, with a vengeance...one in ten patients have a drug resistant form. Aaron Cohen has Health on the Hill...
COHEN: Health officials are reporting an alarming resurgence of TB in what they call ‘hot zones’ on five separate continents. While no epidemic exists in the United States, the drug resistant strain was diagnosed at one time in 12 states...is not found in 42. Dr. Lee Reichman, with the National Tuberculosis Program in Newark, New Jersey, says Americans are not completely safe...
REICHMAN: Anyplace where delivery of tuberculosis services is not what it should be can become a hot zone for tuberculosis. When multiple drug resistance was noted in the early 1990’s, it was in places with high numbers of HIV infected people, of homeless people, of foreign born people. So areas like New York City, like Newark, New Jersey, like San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Miami...are places where there is lots of TB.
COHEN: Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization officials say TB is curable...they recommend a six month course of four drugs to prevent the further spread of the disease which takes more than 3 million lives a year. For Health on the Hill, I’m Aaron Cohen.