"Homelessness is associated with an increased risk of exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, undetected and untreated infection, and subsequent progression to TB disease," according to background information in the article. "In 1993, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standardized national monitoring of TB disease among homeless persons by asking health departments to indicate whether annually reported TB cases occurred in homeless persons," the authors note. "Thus, 1994 through 2003 represents the first full decade of national TB surveillance that includes an assessment of homelessness."

Maryam B. Haddad, M.S.N., M.P.H., F.N.P., and colleagues from the CDC's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, analyzed data of all verified TB cases reported into the National TB Surveillance System from 50 states and the District of Columbia from 1994 through 2003 to compare risk factors and disease characteristics between homeless and nonhomeless persons with TB.

The authors note that because the U.S. Census Bureau does not have data on the number of homeless people in the United States they were unable to use the surveillance data to determine rates of TB disease among the homeless and instead calculated the proportion of all reported TB cases that occurred in homeless persons.

"Of 185,870 cases of TB disease reported between 1994 and 2003, 11,369 were among persons classified as homeless during the 12 months before diagnosis," the authors report. "The annual proportion of cases associated with homelessness was stable (6.1 percent 6.7 percent)." The authors found a higher proportion of TB cases associated with homelessness in western and
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Contact: Jessica Frickey
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JAMA and Archives Journals
7-Jun-2005