U.S. misses goal of wiping out TB by 2010

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Despite steady improvements, the United States has failed to make its goal of eradicating tuberculosis by 2010, government researchers said on Thursday.

U.S. TB rates last year fell to 11,181 reported cases, or 3.6 cases per 100,000 people, a one-year drop of 3.9 percent and an all-time low since national reporting began in 1953, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the disease is proving difficult to target among specific populations, especially among foreign-born individuals, blacks and people infected with HIV.

TB rates are 11 times higher among people born outside the United States. Among those infected, about 95 percent of Asians, 75 percent of Hispanics, 34 percent of blacks and 20 percent of whites were foreign-born.

Four states -- California, Texas, New York and Florida -- account for nearly half of all U.S. TB cases, according to the report, which was released on World TB Day.

Among those born in the United States, TB rates were seven times higher among blacks than whites.

TB is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It can be cured with antibiotics but they must be taken daily for months to be effective. Because people do not always take the drugs as directed, multiple drug-resistant strains called have emerged.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday more than 2 million people will contract drug-resistant TB by 2015.

Cases of TB that is resistant to at least two common treatments, known as multidrug-resistant TB, accounted for 1.3 percent of all U.S. TB cases in 2009, the most recent year for which complete data are available. The rate is largely unchanged from 2008.

Only one case of extensively drug-resistant TB -- an infection that resists the most highly effective drugs -- was reported in the United States in 2010.

Despite missing its goal set in 1989 to eliminate TB by 2010, CDC said it remains committed to eradicating TB in the United States and sees the infection as a global threat.

"Progress in meeting the goal of TB elimination will hinge on improving TB control and prevention activities among disproportionately affected populations," the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

TB kills more than 1.3 million people a year and strains of drug-resistant TB are spreading. According to the World Health Organization, a third of the world's population is infected.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)