On March 24, 2011, the Miami-Dade County Health Department Tuberculosis Control and Prevention Program hosted their 8th annual recognition of World TB Day at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ira Clark Diagnostic Center. World TB Day is observed each year on March 24th to commemorate the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). The activity held at Jackson was attended by dozens of Miami area health care providers who share a vested interest in the control and prevention of TB. Participants included Miami-Dade area physicians, nurses, and health care administrators from local nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and Miami-Dade area correctional facilities. Continuing medical education (CME) credits and continuing education units (CEU) were offered.
The Miami-Dade County Health Department hopes that this event will continue to evolve and serve to educate community partners and alert the population at large that TB is still a viable threat to public health. Annually, TB causes approximately 1.7 million deaths worldwide. Approximately 2 billion persons worldwide, or 1/3 of the world population have latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). LTBI leads to active TB disease for 10% of people who have LTBI. In 2010, there were 154 TB cases reported within Miami-Dade, indicating a TB case rate of 6.2 cases per 100,000 Miami-Dade residents. In 2000, there were 279 TB cases reported in Miami-Dade, indicating a TB case rate of 12.4. Hence, Miami-Dade’s TB case rate has been reduced 50% over the past decade. The dramatic drop in reported TB cases and TB case rate is largely due to the TB Program’s dedicated team of professionals. Improved community partnerships, enhanced surveillance methods, aggressive directly observed therapy administration, dedicated TB nurse case management and caring TB program physicians have collectively contributed to making Miami-Dade safer from the dangers of tuberculosis. World TB Day 2011 presented the opportunity for us to acknowledge our triumphs against TB and to renew our commitment to eliminating this dreaded disease from the Miami-Dade community.
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