Increasing Tuberculosis cases in Phoenix and Atlanta

TB cases have dramatically increased in Phoenix and Atlanta region, and this is a matter of great concern among health officials, left airline passengers voicing concerns over international travel and sparked worldwide news coverage. Tuberculosis was expected to be a plague of the past here, a threat only in developing countries.

The real threat of greatly drug-resistant (XDR) TB in United States is not an immediate pandemic.

Tuberculosis is slow-spreading and not nearly as infectious as even the flu virus. The drug-resistant forms of TB, during rare, are becoming more common, especially in developing countries, where treatments are incomplete.