Healthcare Workers Fight TB In The Inner City

NEW YORK- NOVEMBER 27: A woman, who has a severe form of tuberculosis, is given medication introveiniously at the TB clinic at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey November 27, 2002 in Newark, New Jersey. Healthcare workers around the country oversee patients in a program called Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) that ensures carriers of the tuberculosis bacteria take their medication. Tuberculosis is a contagious disease of the lungs that is spread through the air and kills around 2 million people annually, mainly in third world countries. It is relatively easy and affordable to treat, with a six-month series of drugs costing around 10 dollars. While the number of TB cases in the United States has dropped in recent years, the disease is still particularly strong among the foreign-born, the homeless and impoverished contributing to the deaths of thousands of Americans yearly. As of 2000, over 16,000 Americans have contracted tuberculosis. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)