By Catherine Wolf, KWMU
St. Louis, MO –
The lion's share of tuberculosis cases come out of the St. Louis area, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services. Department TB nurse Diana Fortune says last year nearly 50 of the state's 107 cases of active tuberculosis came from St. Louis County and St. Louis City.
Fortune says the key to stopping the spread of tuberculosis is to treat the disease before it reaches the active stage. She says there were more than 850 latent cases of TB in the St. Louis area last year.
"We do have an effective treatment for latent TB infection and that is where we're going to see the big thrust if we ever want to cure this disease is by treating those latent cases."
Fortune says people with latent cases of TB sometimes don't receive treatment because they are embarrassed to say they have the disease.