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Zachary Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to Zachary Taylor.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Controlling tuberculosis in the United States. Recommendations from the American Thoracic Society, CDC, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

During 1993-2003, incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States decreased 44% and is now occurring at a historic low level (14,874 cases in 2003). The Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis has called for a renewed commitment to eliminating TB in the United States, and the Institute of Medicine has published a detailed plan for achieving that goal. In this statement, the American Thoracic Society (ATS), CDC, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) propose recommendations to improve the control and prevention of TB in the United States and to progress toward its elimination. This statement is one in a series issued periodically by the sponsoring organizations to guide the diagnosis, treatment, control, and prevention of TB. This statement supersedes the previous statement by ATS and CDC, which was also supported by IDSA and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). This statement was drafted, after an evidence-based review of the subject, by a panel of representatives of the three sponsoring organizations. AAP, the National Tuberculosis Controllers Association, and the Canadian Thoracic Society were also represented on the panel. This statement integrates recent scientific advances with current epidemiologic data, other recent guidelines from this series, and other sources into a coherent and practical approach to the control of TB in the United States. Although drafted to apply to TB control activities in the United States, this statement might be of use in other countries in which persons with TB generally have access to medical and public health services and resources necessary to make a precise diagnosis of the disease; achieve curative medical treatment; and otherwise provide substantial science-based protection of the population against TB. This statement is aimed at all persons who advocate, plan, and work at controlling and preventing TB in the United States, including persons who formulate public health policy and make decisions about allocation of resources for disease control and health maintenance and directors and staff members of state, county, and local public health agencies throughout the United States charged with control of TB. The audience also includes the full range of medical practitioners, organizations, and institutions involved in the health care of persons in the United States who are at risk for TB.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗

A no-name tuberculosis tracking system.

Foreign-born persons from countries where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic make up a significant percentage of poultry industry workers in Delaware, a leading poultry-producing state. Many of these workers enter the United States without documentation and assume multiple identities, making it difficult for public health staff to investigate TB contacts who work in the poultry plants. The Sussex County Health Unit of the Delaware Division of Public Health developed a no-name TB tracking system to facilitate identification and treatment of poultry plant workers with TB infection and disease in a high-risk population whose members assume one or more aliases. Completion rates for treatment of latent TB infection in this group increased from 48% to 64% 2 years after the program's implementation.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗

Tuberculosis contact investigation policies, practices, and challenges in 11 U.S. communities.

To describe the policies and procedures used by 11 urban tuberculosis control programs to conduct contact investigations, written policies were reviewed and semistructured interviews were conducted with program managers and staff. Qualitative analysis showed that contact investigation policies and procedures vary widely. Most policies address risk factor assessment and contact prioritization; however, none of the policies provide comprehensive guidance for the entire process. Staffing patterns vary, but, overall, staff receive little formal training; informal monitoring practices predominate. Comprehensive guidelines and programmatic support are needed to improve the quality of contact investigation processes.

Contact Tracing↗

Tuberculosis prevention versus hospitalization: taxpayers save with prevention.

This study describes who pays for inpatient tuberculosis (TB) care and factors associated with payer source. The authors analyzed TB hospitalization costs for a prospective cohort of active TB patients at 10 U.S. sites. Private insurance paid for 9 percent and private hospitals for 6 percent of TB hospitalization costs. Public sources (federal, state, and local governments and public hospitals) paid more than 85 percent of TB hospitalization costs. Preventive services (treatment for latent TB infection; housing, food, and social work for homeless persons; substance abuse treatment for substance abusers; and antiretroviral medication for HIV-infected persons) targeted to those at high risk for TB hospitalization could save taxpayers between $4 million and $118 million. Since public resources are used to pay nearly all the costs of late-stage TB care, the public sector could save by shifting resources currently used for inpatient care to target preventive services to persons at high risk for TB hospitalization.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗