document: Tuberculosis is alarming health officials again because it 's posing new health threats with its connection to the AIDS virus . A 35 percent increase in tuberculosis in 1989 in Newark , N.J. , has caught the attention of health officials , who had been previously recording with satisfaction a slow , steady decrease in TB cases over the last few decades . They attribute the 5 percent national increase in TB cases in 1989 to the ravages of the AIDS virus , which destroys the body 's immune system and leaves victims open to TB infection , Dr. Philip C. Hopewell of San Francisco General Hospital said Sunday . Hopewell and other health officials discussed the link between AIDS and TB during the a four-day World Conference on Lung Health in Boston , which ends Wednesday . About 4 percent of Americans identified as having the AIDS virus also have been diagnosed as being infected with tuberculosis , said Dr. Dixie E. Snider Jr. , director of the division of tuberculosis control at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta . The American Lung Association estimates that 20,000 Americans a year develop TB . In parts of Africa , where AIDS is already a health risk , tuberculosis has become epidemic , said Dr. Annik Rouillon , executive director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Paris . `` The combination of the two is really catastrophic , '' she said . Snider stressed that tuberculosis , unlike AIDS , is a curable disease and called for TB screenings at drug rehabilitation programs , prisons or other places where AIDS tests are being administered . Snider also said doctors should administer TB tests to all persons testing positive for the HIV virus since TB may not be readily diagnosed in AIDS patients . `` It 's important we get control of the situation , '' he said . In Wyoming , the Centers for Disease Control recorded no new cases of TB in 1989 , demonstrating that it is a condition that can be controlled and cured , according to Dr. Lee B. Reichman , director of the pulmonary division of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey . `` I have never heard of a rise of the magnitude seen in New Jersey or , on the other hand , the hope generated by no cases in one state , '' Reichman said . Moreover , unlike AIDS , TB is a highly contagious disease that can be spread by airborne particles coughed up by a person with untreated , clinically active pulmonary TB . Untreated , tuberculosis kills about 50 percent of its victims within two years , according to the Centers for Disease Control . Snider said sustained contact is necessary for TB transmission , and would not pose new problems for AIDS victims already fighting discrimination in jobs and housing . However , he noted that there had been an increase in positive TB tests among AIDS health workers . Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium that commonly affects the lungs but can attack almost any organ . For the last three decades , it has been preventable and curable through multiple drug therapy , Snider said . Snider said 10 million to 15 million Americans have been infected with the tuberculosis germ , but only a small percentage of them develop the disease because their immune system was strong enough to prevent the disease from developing . If , however , a person 's immune system is impaired by poor nutrition or weakened by the HIV virus , people can develop active TB . `` TB is long known as an opportunistic organism , '' Hopewell said . The doctors said U.S. minority groups have become increasing susceptible to TB . Snider said there has been a 150 percent increased in cases of TB among young blacks in New York City . Tuberculosis can be effectively treated , even in AIDS patients , underscoring efforts to screen persons for the disease , the doctor said . Reichman noted that most American have forgotten about the problems of TB ; from 1981 to 1984 , TB cases declined an average of 6 percent per year according to the Centers for disease control . But , he said , `` TB is back with a vengeance . '' While associated with poverty and crowded living conditions , TB through history has ravaged both the poor and the famous . TB victims include Henry David Thoreau , Washington Irving , Franz Kafka , Ring Lardner , Somerset Maugham and Vivien Leigh . An estimated 3 million persons a year die worldwide from TB , according to the American Lung Association .
extractive_keyphrases: new health threats aids virus tuberculosis disease control lung disease tb cases