Kendall County tuberculosis cases up slightly since COVID-19 pandemic

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States at the start of the 20th century.

Today, while still common in developing nations, tuberculosis is considered to be under control in this country.

However, TB remains a potentially serious infectious bacterial disease and requires intensive monitoring and treatment to prevent it from making a resurgence.

The Kendall County Health Department is waging a relentless, daily campaign against tuberculosis to keep the disease at bay.

The numbers have gone up slightly since the COVID-19 pandemic, but on average there are three to seven TB cases in the county at any one time, health department Executive Director RaeAnn VanGundy said.

As recently as three weeks ago, there were five TB cases being checked on by the health department every day.

That job falls to Kendall County Community Health Director Terri Olson, who works with tuberculosis patients to make sure they adhere to a strict antibiotic treatment regimen of up to 14 pills a day.

And that means actually witnessing the patient swallow the pills, whether over a remote video link or in person.

“You have to watch them take their medications,” Olson said.

Olson is a registered nurse with 38 years experience in the health care field. She takes her job seriously, particularly her supervision of patients with tuberculosis.

“These are very time-intensive cases to provide the best possible care,” VanGundy said. “Terri goes above and beyond in every case.”

Tuberculosis is a disease that primarily affects the lungs. Active TB patients have the characteristic cough that defines the condition, which is spread through respiratory droplets.

“An infected person just needs to cough or sneeze and be in close contact with someone for a period of time in an enclosed area,” Olson said.

Other symptoms include night sweats, fever and the unintentional weight loss that gave the disease its 19th-century name “consumption,” because it was seen to be consuming the patient.

Someone with TB in the pulmonary area is considered contagious and must receive antibiotic treatment, Olson said. After six to eight weeks, patients must complete a sputum test to verify that they are no longer contagious and may come out of isolation, she said.

Once individuals have been cleared, they must continue treatment for another six to nine months.

Some patients are diagnosed with extra-pulmonary disease, meaning they carry the infection somewhere else in the body. While not considered as contagious as someone with active TB, these patients require the same active treatment.

There also is latent TB, whose patients show no symptoms and who cannot spread the disease.

Tuberculosis is a reportable disease, Olson said, meaning it must be reported to the Illinois National Electronic Disease Surveillance System.

Olson frequently visits patients at their homes, making sure she does not use a marked county health department vehicle to ensure privacy. She delivers medication, testing kits and other supplies while checking on the condition of her patients.

An important and time-consuming part of Olson’s role in fighting the disease is to coordinate the patients’ care.

“I have to make sure the doctors are all on the same page,” Olson said. “I care about the impact that this disease has on individuals.”