Virus World

Public health officials Tuesday reported a 17% increase in active tuberculosis cases in San Diego County over the previous year. In 2023, 243 cases of TB were reported, exceeding the average of 205 cases in 2021 and 2022. Over the last 10 years, annual reported cases have ranged from a high of 264 in 2019 to a low of 193 in 2020. TB is passed through the air from person to person when someone who is sick with TB coughs, speaks, sings or breathes. Symptoms could include lasting cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss. "If you or a loved one have TB symptoms or think you may have been around someone with TB, it's important that you call your doctor or health care provider and get tested," said Dr. Wilma Wooten, county public health officer.

"We are seeing more cases of TB, not just in San Diego County, but around the state. We all need to be aware of the symptoms and take action quickly so that we can stop the spread of TB and protect ourselves, our families and our communities," she added. According to the county, cases of the disease declined during the coronavirus pandemic. Some COVID-related precautions such as masking and social distancing might have reduced TB transmission. People might also have missed getting diagnosed or it might have taken longer to see a doctor because of strains on the health care system or changes in their own care-seeking behaviors. More than 175,000 people in San Diego County are believed to have latent TB infection, and most do not know it. Without preventive treatment, as many as 10% of those people may go onto get sick with active, contagious TB disease. The county is hosting the San Diego TB Prevention Education and Community Engagement Summit at the Southeastern Livewell Center on March 22. Those in the medical community and health care organizations are encouraged to attend and participate.

More information on California TB cases :

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/TB-in-California-2023-Snapshot.aspx 

Can a TB vaccine help fight Covid-19? There's more evidence the BCG vaccine might protect against coronavirus. Researchers found that countries where many people have been given the vaccine have had less mortality from Covid-19. While that doesn't mean that BCG somehow reduces the risk of severe illness form a coronavirus infection, it fits in with other research that suggests BCG can boost people's immunity in general, and perhaps help against the coronavirus. The World Health Organization has cautioned against the use of the BCG vaccine for coronavirus until more is known, but teams around the world are studying the possibility it may help.

Luis Escobar of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and colleagues used existing data to explore whether countries without a national BCG vaccination program have greater coronavirus mortality rates. In order to make a fair comparison, they accounted for factors such as population density, access to health care and response to Covid-19. They found a strong correlation between BCG vaccination use and lowered Covid-19 mortality rates in socially similar European countries. Every 10% increase in the BCG index, which indicates the degree of universal BCG vaccination, was associated with a 10.4% reduction in Covid-19 mortality, they reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "What distinguishes our work is that we were very careful in removing variables," said Carolina Barillas-Mury, a distinguished investigator with the National Institutes of Health who worked on the study."When we removed them, if this was not true, the association should have disappeared. Instead of disappearing, it became stronger and stronger -- more straightforward," she told CNN....

Original Study Published in PNAS (July 9, 2020):

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008410117