A small price to pay for diversity?
“This should be a red flag for everyone, including other states,” said Kim Field, head of TB control for the state Department of Health. Seattle is an international city, Field said, with a large immigrant population and travelers from all corners of the world.
Changes in the TB trends often show up first in port cities with high rates of foreign travel, she said, foreshadowing future increases in other communities. Most of the new cases, 75 percent, are being identified among immigrants from Southeast Asia, Africa, former Soviet states and Latin America, Field said.
In addition to the local increase in TB cases, public health officials are generally concerned about the increasing number of cases of TB that are resistant to treatment. Although only a handful of cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) have been identified in this region, many experts warn that lack of aggressive containment of TB worldwide will lead to a spread of TB strains that are difficult, if not impossible, to treat.