Our history with TB
Breathe California has been fighting Tuberculosis for over a hundred years! As the Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis in San Francisco (1908) and Santa Clara County (1911) our independent, local nonprofit organizations’ original mission was to fight the TB epidemic. By the 1930s, through education, advocacy, and research, our work had significantly helped reduce local TB rates by 60% – before the advent of antibiotics or x-rays!
World TB Day Event – Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Join us in commemorating World TB Day from 12 pm to 1:15 pm on March 25, 2025. This year’s topic is Progress in Battling TB and LTBI in Santa Clara County, hosted by Public Health’s Tuberculosis (TB) Prevention and Control Program. This hybrid event – both in-person and online – will feature an insightful presentation addressing key topics in the fight against TB.
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Dr. Ann Loeffler, SCC TB Controller, will explore the AB 2132 Bill, review 2024 TB data, and discuss the latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) Care Cascade. Also, Dr. Harleen Sahni, Medical Director of the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) Refugee and TB Clinic, will present the progress in screening for and treating LTBI in SCVMC clinics.
Whether you attend in person or virtually, this event is an excellent opportunity to engage with professionals and community members working together to raise awareness and drive action against TB. Don’t miss out on this critical conversation! Please register here to let us know if you’ll be joining in person or via Zoom. The in-person address is Berger Auditorium, 1555 Berger Dr, San Jose, CA 95112, Bldg. 2.
For any questions, please get in touch with us at PHTBProgram@phd.sccgov.org.
More about tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is an airborne contagious disease caused by a strain of bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and primarily affects the lungs. When a person with infectious TB spits, coughs, sneezes, speaks, or even sings, the disease spreads easily through the air in microscopic droplets. A skin or blood test will indicate TB infection. Symptoms progress slowly, making it very difficult to diagnose at early stages.
Tuberculosis manifests in two manners: latent TB infection and TB disease. People with latent TB (LTBI) are infected, but feel well, show no symptoms, and cannot transmit the disease to others. Without a TB diagnosis and effective proper treatment with antibiotics over a period of months, 5-10% of these cases will eventually develop TB disease, 50% within the first few years of initial infection. People with TB disease are considered infectious and may spread the disease to others. Symptoms may include a persistent cough, chest pain, coughing up blood, weight loss, lack of appetite, chills, fever, and night sweats. Suggested treatment includes a long course of several antibiotics.
Though TB rates have been greatly reduced, it continues to pose a threat today, especially with the advent of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. In 2015, California had the highest number of TB cases in the United States. Anyone can become infected with TB, but some people are more at risk than others, such as those living in crowded conditions, those who work with people who have TB, and those whose immune systems are compromised. For example, the risk of developing tuberculosis is over 30 times higher in people who have HIV. TB is a leading infectious killer of people living with HIV/AIDS, causing over 50 percent of AIDS deaths in some sub-Saharan African countries.