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, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,461-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Health — Orange, its flagship hospital, the UCI Health — Irvine acute care hospital and medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and a network of ambulatory care centers across the region. UCI Health — Orange provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to the only Orange County-based National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).