Windsor-Essex sees slight rise in active tuberculosis cases, health unit not concerned

Health officials are keeping an eye on tuberculosis, as it’s the third highest disease in Windsor. CTV Windsor’s Travis Fortnum reports.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting a slight uptick in active tuberculosis (TB) cases so far this year — but according to the region’s Medical Officer of Health, there’s no cause for alarm.

Dr. Mehdi Aloosh said TB doesn’t spread the way other airborne illnesses do.

“TB is not like measles or flu,” he explained.

“It takes time. It can be transmitted to people who are in close contact for weeks or months.”

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that many people associate with the past, but it still exists today.

It’s treatable but can be fatal if left unchecked.

According to the health unit, there have been seven active TB cases in Windsor-Essex so far this year.

That’s up from the five-year average of 2.6 active cases by this point in the year.

There have also been 62 latent TB infections identified, right in line with the five-year average of 61.6.

Latent TB means a person has been infected but shows no symptoms and is not contagious.

“Overall, I am not concerned for Windsor-Essex County Health and for the general public population here,” said Aloosh.

The health unit said TB is far less contagious than other illnesses — and typically only spreads through long-term close contact.

“It’s not that we walk into a store or go to a playground, and we would be concerned about that,” Aloosh said.

“I’m emphasizing that this disease is not very contagious — it takes a long time for exposure.”

While local officials aren’t sounding alarm bells, researchers elsewhere in Canada are working to better understand and treat TB, especially in parts of the country where cases are higher.

In Saskatchewan, where rates are more than double the national average, scientists at VIDO, a research centre in Saskatoon, said global TB efforts suffered setbacks during the pandemic.

“TB was very much in control until COVID hit. We were on track to like — rates had fallen down,” said VIDO research scientist Neeraj Dhar.

“But then once COVID hit, all the progress that the world had made in the last almost ten, 15 years was all reversed.”

Dr. Aloosh said TB remains a global concern, but that locally, it’s simply something the health unit is keeping an eye on.