Eliminating borders in Tuberculosis surveillance

The Tuberculosis Control Program in the City of Stamford processed 235 new latent cases and 12 new active cases in 2007. This represents 40% and 71% increase respectively from 2006. Stamford, CT, located 25 miles outside of New York City, has a population of approximately 117,000.

The purpose of this abstract is to demonstrate how an interdisciplinary team analyzed information gathered during contact investigations and identified increased numbers of active and latent cases. This team included: the Health Department's Director of Health, Director of Nursing Services, TB Nurse Coordinator, federal and local Pulmonologists, state TB Nurse Consultant and TB Epidemiologist, state and local laboratories, local hospital Infectious Disease Physician and Nurse, Radiologists and Pharmacists.

In July of 2007 there was information surrounding active TB cases that pointed to epilinks between cases in our local community. Methods used to link the cases were sputum specimens, genotyping cultures, autopsy reports, active listening skills while interviewing patients, utilizing interstate health departments, communication via phone calls, conference calls, meetings and a newsletter. The TB Nurse Coordinator's education program increased client trust leading to additional contacts.

Benefits of forming an interdisciplinary team include early identification of new active and latent cases and the establishment of a multi-agency team that remains “at the ready” to prevent future TB outbreaks. Networking within the local, state and federal health-related agencies, should be embraced by every local health department to eliminate borders in public health practice in general, and TB surveillance in particular.