ROCHESTER N.Y. (WROC) — There has been confirmed case of tuberculosis in a Syracuse University student. But Paul Levy who is the Medical Director at the tuberculosis clinic in Rochester and a Pulmonologist at URMC says he doesn’t see this as a cause for concern. In fact, he says we get a few cases of Tb in our area every year.
According to Dr. Paul Levy Pulmonologist, we have not had a large volume of cases, he says even nationally the number of TB cases has been on a gradual decline.
“Nationally we might have around 95 hundred, 10 thousand cases per year across the entire U.S. In Monroe County we might have around 20 cases per year in our population of around a million people in Monroe County,” says Dr. Levy.
Levy says the disease can be cured as long as the patient has consistent access to the proper medications throughout their treatment.
Although you may rarely hear about it, he says TB testing has never stopped. Instead, it has just become more targeted towards those who are at a higher risk.