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Bugging out: Tuberculosis outbreak threatens Sunset Parkers

Bugging out: Tuberculosis outbreak threatens Sunset Parkers
Community News Group / Max Jaeger

Sunset Park is ground-zero of an outbreak of tuberculosis — a disease mostly eradicated many years ago.

Officials have counted 15 cases of the bacterial infection, which causes chronic coughing, fever, and fatigue, linked to the neighborhood since June 2013 — and seven of those cases have come in just the past seven months, according Department of Health and Mental Hygiene officials.

The disease, which has been largely eradicated in the United States, is nothing to sneeze at, according to a local doctor.

“It’s a serious health hazard for our community,” said Dr. Bing Lu, who practices in the neighborhood.

Sunset Park has the highest rate of tuberculosis across the city, according to Jeanne Sullivan Meissner of the Health Department.

Health officials counted more than 580 cases of the lung infection in the city last year — and there have been more than 100 cases in 2015 so far — but those aren’t big numbers, she said.

“That’s the lowest in recorded history,” Meissner said.

Citywide, 30 people died from the disease last year, according to a report from the health department. None of the 15 Sunset Park cases resulted in death, Meissner said.

Most of the Sunset Park victims are recent immigrants who likely had the disease before they immigrated to Brooklyn, according to Lu. When latent, the bacteria can fool tests administered to newcomers as they enter the country, he said.

Many of the recent cases were young, Asian men who worked in out-of-state restaurants and spent their free time in neighborhood Internet cafes, officials said. There is no evidence of a direct link between Internet cafes or restaurant work and tuberculosis — any small space where individuals gather for extended periods of time can become a hotbed for transmission, Meissner said.

“Tuberculosis thrives in small spaces,” she said. “But it’s actually not a disease that’s easy to catch.”

Internet cafe regulars didn’t seem too worried about contracting the disease.

“The [vent] takes everything out,” said Tom Gong, who comes to Seven Seven Two Internet Cafe in Sunset Park about twice a week.

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D–Sunset Park) is organizing a free screening at the Sunset Park Recreation Center on April 18. Members of the Chinese-American Planning Council will also be on hand to help individuals register for health insurance through the New York State Health Exchange, according to director Wai-Yee Chan.

Until 1961, the city’s tuberculosis patients were sent off to Seaview Hospital, a sanatorium on bucolic Staten Island, whose “rural environment” provided the perfect setting for treatment, according to a historic report on the hospital compiled by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1985.

But today’s tuberculosis sufferers don’t have to worry about being quarantined — or deported, for that matter. The Department of Health, which administers screenings, does not inquire about immigration status, officials said.

“We want to make sure people know we’re not asking about documentation status — it doesn’t matter,” Meissner said.

Tuberculosis screening at Sunset Park Recreation Center (Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street in Sunset Park) 10 am–4 pm on April 18. Free.

Reach reporter Max Jaeger at mjaeger@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–8303. Follow him on Twitter @JustTheMax.
Computer virus: Many victims in the recent tuberculosis outbreak frequent internet cafes like this one. The disease may spread easier in such cafes, where patrons spend hours at a time in close quarters.
Community News Group / Max Jaeger