Expanded tuberculosis surveillance and tuberculosis morbidity--United States, 1993

Abstract

Because of the resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States, in 1987 the Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Tuberculosis recommended the strengthening of TB surveillance to improve monitoring and to assist in targeting groups at risk for disease. In addition, because of outbreaks of nosocomial multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in New York and Florida during 1990-1992, in 1992, the National MDR TB Task Force recommended that drug-susceptibility testing be performed on all initial and final Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from each TB patient and that the results be reported to CDC. In January 1993, in conjunction with state and local health departments, CDC implemented an expanded surveillance system for TB. This report summarizes final TB surveillance data for 1993, compares findings with previous years, and provides information on expanded surveillance.