Tuberculosis In LaBelle? Mother Says 'Yes'

Special Report: Mom Says Daughter Has Tuberculosis

LABELLE, FL. -- A LaBelle mother has told a Ft. Myers Television station that her daughter has tuberculosis and is in the hospital.  Paula Martin who lives in the city of LaBelle in a modest house on 5th Avenue says her 34-year old daughter Andrea Page  was diagnosed with tuberculosis a month ago. Martin claims her daughter got TB about nine months ago and believes others have caught it,  and wants people to know her daughter is a victim in the situation, claiming her daughter "didn't do this."


Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that is spread from person to person through the air. TB usually affects the lungs. The germs are put into the air when a person with TB of the lung coughs, sneezes, laughs or sings. TB can also affect other parts of the body, such as the brain, the kidneys or the spine. General symptoms may include feeling weak or sick, weight loss, fever and/or night sweats. Symptoms of TB of the lungs may include cough, chest pain and/or coughing up blood. Other symptoms depend on the particular part of the body that is affected.

Although Florida law requires this disease when diagnosed as suspected or in an active state to be reported within 72 hours and immediately by telephone to the Health Department where the patient lives, no medical officials reportedly have confirmed the mother's allegation. Although tuberculosis is common around the world with about one-third the world's population infected, it is rarer in the U.S. About 2,000,000 million people die around the world of tuberculosis, more than any other infectious disease including AIDS.  Eight million new cases occur each year, 22,000 in the U.S.  10 to 15 million people in the U.S. are infected with the TB germ, with the potential to develop TB disease in the future.

The Florida Department of Health reported only 137 cases in Florida in the first two months of 2007, the latest reporting period. Hendry county had one reported case.  Miami-Dade county had 29 cases and Orange county 17. Lee county had 4 cases. The state's tuberculosis hospital A. G. Holley State Hospital is in Broward County.

Those at higher risk to get TB include:

• People who share the same breathing space (such as family members, friends, co-workers) with someone who has TB disease;
• Poor people;
• Homeless people;
• Foreign-born people form countries where a lot of people have TB;
• Nursing home residents;
• Prisoners
• Alcoholics and intravenous drug users (IVDUs)
• People with medical conditions such as diabetes, certain types of cancers, and being underweight; and especially
• People with HIV infection (the virus that causes AIDS).
  

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