MD Health Dept: Case Of TB Confirmed In Miami-Dade
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami-Dade County Health Department on Monday confirmed a case of tuberculosis in which the patient died.
A physician with the department said the woman, a 28-year-old nurse from Colombia, was diagnoses with TB at Aventura Hospital on March 17th and she died Saturday, March 21st.
The hospital alerted the health department of the case, and now additional testing is being done to those who lived or came in close contact with the woman.
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Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that spreads in the air from person to person either by coughing, sneezing, speaking or singing.
Symptoms include sickness or weakness, weight loss, fever, coughing and chest pain.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 9,582 reported cases of tuberculosis in the United States in 2013.
That was down 3.6 percent compared to 2012, the CDC reports.
The CDC says there were 536 deaths from TB in the US in 2011, the most recent year for which the data are available.
A Miami-Dade Health Department physician says there were 130 reported cases of tuberculosis in the county last year.
March 24, 2015 is World Tuberculosis Day.
For more information and resources, visit the Miami-Dade County Health Department Tuberculosis Control and Prevention website at or the CDC's TB page.
