Woman With Rare, Drug-Resistant Form of TB Visited McHenry County

A person visiting with family in McHenry County in recent weeks was infected with a rare drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, health officials said.

This person, who is from India, visited the area on May 18 and sought treatment. The patient, who local health officials later learned was infected XDR-TB, a very rare form of tuberculosis, was transferred out of Illinois for care, according to a McHenry County Department of Health press release.

Health officials were not releasing information on exact locations that the woman visited while in McHenry County, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“This particular case we mentioned in the release - those people in contact with the person were interviewed and being monitored,” Debra Quackenbush, spokeswoman for the health department, told the Chicago Tribune. “The general public is not at risk. It’s important to get information out there about TB.”

Tuberculosis is not easily transmissible and XDR-TB, in particular, is also rare, health officials said. XDR-TB is a form of TB which is resistant to many of the most powerful anti-TB drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, developing XDR-TB is usually a sign of an active TB patient receiving inadequate clinical care. Or a sign that the patient has not received the proper information, counseling and material support to complete their full course of treatment.

Tuberculosis is spread through the air by an infected person when coughing and sneezing. People who are nearby may breathe in the TB bacteria and become infected. TB is not spread by shaking someone’s hand, sharing food or drink, touching bed linens or toilet seats, sharing toothbrushes or kissing.

This is the first time MCDH has identified a case of XDR-TB in the county. In 2014, five active cases of TB (not XDR-TB) and 57 people with latent, non-infectious TB were treated.

MCDH’s Tuberculosis Clinic, located in Woodstock, provides chest x-rays, diagnostic studies, laboratory services and medication to any McHenry County resident in addition to outreach to those populations at high risk for developing TB.

If you think you have been exposed to someone with TB, contact your health care provider or MCDH to see if you should be tested. For more information on TB, call MCDH’s Communicable Disease Program at 815-334-4500.