Care Connection Newsletter

Tuberculosis (TB), or TB disease, is still a life-threatening problem in this country and one of the world’s leading infectious disease killers. The bacteria responsible for causing TB can live in the body for years without symptoms. This is called inactive TB or latent TB infection. Without treatment, inactive TB can become active TB disease at any time and make you sick. Once TB becomes active, it can spread from person to person through the air.

Think. Test. Treat. TB resource hub contains resources to help inform and guide conversations between patients and providers. The healthcare provider page has information about TB risk factors, latent TB testing and treatment, and resources for providers.

Healthcare Providers Can Prevent TB
Starting a conversation with your doctor is the first step to protecting your family, friends, and community from this highly contagious disease. Testing and treating latent TB infection is a critical step to eliminating TB in the United States and protecting your community. As a trusted source of health information, it’s important to initiate a conversation about latent TB infection and TB disease with your patients at risk for TB. | The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tuberculosis (TB) risk assessment worksheet may be used in performing TB risk assessments for health care facilities and nontraditional facility-based settings. North Dakota residents are eligible for medication to treat latent TB infection and active TB disease at no cost through the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) TB Program. TB medication request forms can be accessed on the HHS TB for Health Care Providers website.

The North Dakota Sexually Transmitted and Bloodborne Diseases Unit, in partnership with the Dakotas AIDS Education and Training Center (DAETC), hosts Lunch and Learn presentations every 4th Wednesday of the month at 12:00 pm CT for one hour. Archived webinars can be accessed here, including the most recent presentation on Fundamentals of Tuberculosis. Each presentation is approved for one CEU from the North Dakota Board of Nursing. To earn the CEU, participants must take the post-test available for each presentation within the calendar year.

HIV Clinical Guidelines Update: anal cancer screening recommendations

Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents With HIV - HHS experts recently published new anal cancer screening recommendations within the guidelines (visit HIV.gov for what’s new). These include a screening program for people with HIV that uses high-resolution anoscopy to help detect and treat pre-cancer and prevent anal cancer. These are the first U.S. federal guidelines on the topic and reflected findings from the NIH-funded Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) study.