Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member Schulman questions DOHMH on tuberculosis funding and cases
3:07:00
·
3 min
Council Member Lynn Schulman engages in a Q&A session with Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse about tuberculosis funding, testing sites, and current statistics in New York City. They discuss the allocation of $7.2 million for Stop Tuberculosis NYC in fiscal year 2026 and the recent rise in tuberculosis cases.
- The funding will support hiring case managers, expanding contact tracing teams, community engagement activities, and staffing three tuberculosis clinics.
- New York City reported 839 tuberculosis cases in 2024, the highest number in 16 years.
- The majority of tuberculosis cases in NYC are in foreign-born individuals, consistent with national and global trends.
Lynn Schulman
3:07:00
And I'm gonna expand on what chair Brannan asked about tuberculosis.
3:07:04
So the executive plan includes additional city funding of $7,200,000 in fiscal twenty twenty six only with an increased head count of 79 for Stop Tuberculosis NYC.
3:07:14
Funding will primarily support the hiring of tuberculosis case managers and the purchase of additional test kits and operational supplies.
3:07:22
Besides hiring and acquiring supplies, what additional expenses will the $7,200,000 be used for?
Michelle Morse
3:07:29
Yeah, thank you for the question.
3:07:32
For the $7,200,000 for tuberculosis in FY '20 '6, there are a number of things that it will support.
3:07:37
We are prioritizing increasing the number of case managers that we have as one of the areas of focus for those additional dollars to make sure that each case manager who is supporting and accompanying someone who is being treated for tuberculosis has a reasonable caseload.
3:07:54
We'll also be using those resources to expand our contact tracing team.
3:08:00
That's the team that essentially speaks with someone when they're diagnosed with tuberculosis and gets a better sense of people that they may have been in long contact with and who might be exposed and make sure that those people are also tested and hopefully not, but if needed treated if they did develop tuberculosis.
3:08:20
Those dollars will also of course support some of our community engagement activities And then we do run three tuberculosis clinics across the city.
3:08:31
So the ongoing staffing of those clinics is a part of the prioritization as well in the $7,200,000 And the final thing I'll just mention is that we care for about fifty percent of all the tuberculosis cases in New York City and about seventy five percent of all of the drug resistant cases in the city across our three clinics.
Lynn Schulman
3:08:53
The current tuberculosis testing sites are in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Corona, Queens and Mauritania and The Bronx.
3:08:59
Is there a plan to open any additional locations?
Michelle Morse
3:09:03
Our current plan is to continue expanding those three existing sites.
Lynn Schulman
3:09:08
What are the current statistics on tuberculosis cases in the city?
Michelle Morse
3:09:13
In 2024, calendar year 2024, there were eight thirty nine cases of tuberculosis in New York City.
3:09:22
We released our updated data on tuberculosis in March related to World TB Day.
3:09:29
That is the highest number of tuberculosis cases that we've seen in sixteen years unfortunately.
3:09:36
And so we are working very hard to make sure that everyone who's diagnosed gets treatment in a timely way and again that we're able to reduce any potential spread of tuberculosis because of the high number of cases.
3:09:48
And then the other thing that I'll just mention is again New York City is the biggest city in the country, the most global city in the country.
3:09:56
The majority unfortunately of the cases of tuberculosis that we see are in people who are foreign born and that's been the case for decades.
3:10:04
But there has been a national and a global increase in tuberculosis cases in recent years.
3:10:10
So our increase in cases is somewhat consistent with that overall trend of increased cases of tuberculosis in recent years post pandemic.
Lynn Schulman
3:10:18
Do you need more funding to push back on the rise in the tuberculosis cases?
Michelle Morse
3:10:23
We are really looking forward to being able to use the 7,200,000.0 in additional dollars in FY twenty six and to make as much progress as we can.
3:10:33
But we'd happy be happy to speak again in six months or so and see how much progress we're able to make with the current funding and go from there.
Lynn Schulman
3:10:42
Alright.