The Chicago Tribune, 435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 - Tuesday, August 19, 1997 Edition: LAKE SPORTS FINAL Section: METRO LAKE Page: 1 Word Count: 915
Casey Bukro, Tribune Staff Writer.

"I just got a job yesterday, and they said, 'Get a TB test,' " said Rudolph of Libertyville, who will teach physical education at St. Gilbert's School in Grayslake.

The injection of an antigen under his skin will help indicate in 48 to 72 hours whether he has tuberculosis. Such tests are required in schools and becoming part of health examinations for employment.

The casualness with which tuberculosis is treated these days contrasts with the turn of the century, when the airborne disease was the leading cause of death in the United States.

Illinois' earliest TB health records recorded 23,929 cases in 1917 and 8,579 deaths in 1918, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Last year, there were 1,060 cases in the state. The death toll for TB on Illinois for 1996 is not yet available, but there were 60 deaths in 1995, according to the state Health Department.

Yet reminders of the dark days of tuberculosis still dot the countryside, such as the modernistic white building at 2400 Belvidere Rd. in Waukegan that opened in the late 1930s as a TB sanatorium.

"We used to lock people up in the sanatorium, and that's where they lived until they either died or were cured," said Jewell Young, executive director of the county tuberculosis clinic.

In the 1940s, scientists discovered the first of several drugs used to treat TB. Disease rates began to plummet, and public health officials now speak of eliminating tuberculosis.

The old sanatorium is now used by the Lake County Health Department as a medical facility. The TB clinic operates nearby in a small brick building that once was the sanatorium supervisor's home.

TB clinics such as the one in Waukegan still are found in Illinois, mostly in major population centers, such as Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, Champaign and East St. Louis, where TB keeps a foothold.

Counties surrounding Chicago also have the clinics, according to the state public health department, as well as another 17 counties Downstate.

In an age of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis might seem like a disease of the past, but, Young said: "We will never really get rid of tuberculosis. We just control it."

The bacterial disease usually attacks the lungs, although it can affect the brain, kidneys or the spine. It can spread through sneezing or coughing. Symptoms include chest pain and coughing up blood.

At risk are those who live in close contact with people who have TB or have poor health.

"We have many people who are infected but don't have the disease," said Young. "Tuberculosis can lie dormant in the system for 40 or 50 years. As we get older, our immune system is weakened, and then the tuberculosis does what we call 'light up' and go into the disease state."

In Lake County, tuberculosis hot spots include Waukegan, Zion and North Chicago, all heavily populated areas. But the numbers are not large.

Lake County had 36 TB cases in 1995 and 1996. In 1994, there were 40 cases. There were 50 cases in 1993, 38 in 1992 and 44 cases in both 1991 and 1990.

The county's TB rate is falling, said Young, because the cases are holding steady while population is growing. Young said her goal is to get it down to 25 cases a year.

Young said she will get her annual update on the disease at the Illinois Conference on Tuberculosis on Oct. 24 in the Chancellor Hotel and Convention Center in Champaign.

In 1996, there were 21,327 cases of active TB reported in the U.S., dropping nearly 7 percent from the 22,860 cases in 1995, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. That was the fourth consecutive annual decline nationally in TB cases.

But tuberculosis demonstrated how quickly it can spring back in the mid-1980s after a 30-year decline.

From 1985 to 1992, TB cases jumped almost 20 percent to more than 26,000 cases. The American Lung Association said this was the result of states cutting back their anti-TB efforts when federal funds for curbing TB were replaced by general public health block grants.

Illinois was among 20 states in 1996 that reported no change or an increase in TB cases.

Illinois' 1,060 cases last year was up 3.6 percent from the 1,024 cases in 1995.

"The trends in our state have been a little up and down," said Tom Schafer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public Health in Springfield. "But in the last two years, the numbers are as low as they have been in the last 15 years."

About 75 percent of the state's TB cases each year are reported in Cook County. Chicago recorded 669 cases in 1996, while suburban Cook County had 157, for a countywide total of 826.

DuPage County had 40 cases last year, Kane had 20, Kendall had two, McHenry had nine and Will had 17.

An estimated 10 million to 15 million Americans are infected with TB, and about 10 percent of them will develop the disease.

Illinois ranks fifth in TB cases reported in 1996, behind California, New York, Texas and Florida.

Almost 2 billion people, or a third of the world's population, are infected with TB. Eight million new cases are reported each year, and about 3 million TB deaths. Worldwide, it is the leading infectious killer of children and adults.

Copyright 1997/The Chicago Tribune. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Chicago Tribune, 435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611.
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