Multi-Drug Resistant TB Spikes 75 Percent in Massachusetts

The number of cases of very dangerous, multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) reported in Massachusetts spiked 75 percent in 2015, to seven cases, up from four in 2014, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

In 2015, 87 percent of the 192 cases of active TB diagnosed in Massachusetts (167 out of 192) were foreign-born, a rate significantly higher than the foreign-born rate across the country that year, which was 66 percent.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health provided no information on how many of the seven cases of MDR TB in 2015 and four cases in 2014 were foreign-born. However, of the 9,421 cases of active diagnosed in the United States in 2014, 91 were classified as MDR. 88 percent of those cases (80 out of 91) were foreign-born. The CDC did not report how many of those foreign-born cases of MDR TB were resettled refugees.

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