Tuberculosis, once known as consumption and the disease that killed all five of the Bronte sisters, Frederic Chopin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, is sometimes dismissed as a thing of the past.
After years of decrease, however, there has been an increase in new diseases in California, with 1,704 instances in 2020 rising to 1,848 in 2022.
New statistics from Santa Clara County were made public on Tuesday, indicating a 19% increase in cases between 2022 and 2023. San Francisco, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties all reported an increase in instances.
According to medical experts, the comeback is not a sign of a serious epidemic but rather the dispersed reappearance of a latent health risk that was identified during the COVID-19 pandemic. They noted that diagnoses may have been overlooked, misinterpreted, or delayed.
Dr. Priya Shete, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at UC San Francisco, said, “This is a slow burn’ of an age-old disease that’s now increasing, probably because we let our guard down and didn’t emphasize the need for prevention of progression” from latent illness to active tuberculosis.