document: A steady decline in tuberculosis has all but stopped amid the continuing threat of TB for the AIDS-infected , federal health researchers say . In 1988 , the last year for which complete statistics are available , 22,436 U.S. tuberculosis cases were reported , down 0.4 percent from 1987 , the national Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday . That slight drop compares with an average annual decrease of 6.7 percent from 1981 to 1984 . One reason for the slowing of progress in wiping out TB is `` the increasing occurrence of TB in persons infected with ... HIV , '' the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome , the CDC said . AIDS leaves the body susceptible to a number of serious illnesses , including TB , and studies have found that about 4 percent of AIDS patients also are listed as TB patients . If the 6.7 percent average annual decline had kept up through the late 1980s , an estimated 14,768 fewer TB cases would have been expected during 1985-1988 , the CDC said in its weekly report . Tuberculosis was down 8.7 percent among whites in 1988 , as compared with 1985 , but up 9.1 percent among blacks and 17.6 percent among Hispanics _ two groups with proportionately higher rates of AIDS cases . In 1988 , 7,720 new tuberculosis cases were reported in whites , compared with 8,280 in blacks and 3,637 in Hispanics . The TB rate among blacks was 28.3 per 100,000 , compared with 18.3 for Hispanics and 4.1 for whites . Another 2,371 TB cases were reported among Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States , for a rate of 36.3 per 100,000 . The CDC estimates that 10 million Americans are infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis , an infection of the lungs . The vast majority will never become ill . But the number of new cases is only part of the toll from tuberculosis , the CDC said . In 1987 , more than 115,000 Americans were under TB treatment : 20,000 new patients plus 95,000 people labeled high-risk and on preventive therapy . Tuberculosis , which is curable in most cases with drug treatment , killed 1,755 Americans in 1987 .
extractive_keyphrases: steady decline tuberculosis cases aids cases disease control complete statistics