Behind California’s high rate of tuberculosis
UCI Health expert says travel to endemic areas could be driving uptick
IN THE NEWS: California’s tuberculosis rate has been on the rise since 2023. Its incidence rate is nearly double the national average, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Dr. Shruti Gohil, associate medical director for UCI Health Epidemiology and Infection Prevention, tells AOL that part of the reason could be that a large portion of the state travels to areas where the disease is endemic.
Disruptions to routine screening and care during the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role, she says.
“Routine screening is vital in catching latent TB, which can lie dormant in the body for decades. If the illness is identified, treatment could stop it from becoming active. This type of routine screening wasn't accessible during the pandemic, when healthcare was limited to emergency or essential visits only.”
Gohil is a board-certified infectious disease expert, is also an associate professor of infectious diseases at the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, communicable disease transmission and multidrug-resistant organism infections.
Gohil has led INSPIRE, a series of national studies to assess patient risk for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and to prompt physicians to limit the use of extended-spectrum antibacterial drugs in real time. She is a member of The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
About UCI Health
UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties. As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education. Follow UCI Health on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.