Representatives with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent two weeks with the Vanderburgh County Health Department to assist them with an “uptick” of tuberculosis.
Vanderburgh County Health Department (VCHD) Administrator Joe Gries said he can’t share specific numbers or demographics of the current increase in cases, but it was enough to call in the Indiana Health Department , who then asked for the CDC experts to come help.
Gries said they had two individuals with the CDC — an investigator, who helped with contact tracing and following protocols and an epidemiologist who helped them group and map the infected individuals.
“They're just helping us kind of look at the overall picture, in conjunction with the state health department, so that we're doing everything we can to try to make sure things are moving in the right direction on this,” Gries said.
The State Health Department has its own unit focused on TB. The VCHD is in contact with this group regularly.
The CDC ended their investigations on December 1. Gries said they’re also watching cases of syphilis, which is not currently an outbreak.
TB is a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs. 1.5 million people die from this disease every year, according to the World Health Organization.
TB is treatable if caught in time.
Gries said going forward, they’ll keep following CDC protocols and follow their suggestions on who to pursue for contact tracing.
“So a lot of it was just reaffirming what we're doing,” Gries said. “But then also they helped us with getting an idea of maybe where to look next. Sometimes … you're overwhelmed with what you're doing and you don't know where to look next. So that was really helpful.”
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