TB Surge in Japan Felt in High Places

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

TB Surge in Japan Felt in High Places

Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (12/08/00) P. A49
Coleman, Joseph

The per capita tuberculosis (TB) infection rate in Japan is 38.1 cases per 100,000 people, the highest rate among industrialized countries. In addition, the number of new TB infections in Japan increased last year for the third consecutive year, and the surge is forcing health officials to rush to update prevention programs and look for additional resources. The disease has made a comeback, and not even Japan's Imperial Household is immune from TB testing. Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako were tested recently after an elderly attendant was diagnosed with TB. While the tests came back negative, another employee at the palace was hospitalized because of TB in mid-November. Some other countries fighting TB say their higher rates of infection are, in part, the result of the AIDS epidemic and a greater number of drug-resistant TB strains. In Japan, however, experts cite the country's increasingly elderly population as a key factor in the disease's surge. The number of Japanese age 65 or older accounts for some 17.3 percent of the population, and many survivors of the postwar days--when TB was the No. 1 cause of death in Japan--carry the tubercle bacillus. While most hosts will not develop the disease, it can become active and contagious as an aging individual's immune system weakens, thus putting other people at risk as well.
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