Will County clinic marks 100 years of fighting tuberculosis as 4 fatal cases reported last year

Tuberculosis took four lives in Will County last year, although the disease is not near the killer it was 100 years ago.

That’s when the Sunny Hill Tuberculosis Clinic opened in Joliet as a sanitarium providing a place to isolate and provide treatment for people likely to die from the disease.

The clinic on Monday marked its 100th year, sending a message that tuberculosis remains a threat to public health even though it is not the killer it once was.

In 2024, there were 19 active cases of tuberculosis detected in Will County.

“One of the reasons we’re here to today is to remind people it (tuberculosis) is present, and it’s not going away,” Dr. John Walsh, a local pulmonologist, said at the event.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs but can also be found in other parts of the body.

Walsh pointed to changes in treatment since the last sanitariums were built in the United States in the 1950s after drugs were developed to treat tuberculosis.

“One of the reasons we’re here to today is to remind people it (tuberculosis) is present, and it’s not going away.'

—  Dr. John Walsh, local pulmonologist,

Today, people with tuberculosis survive the disease but only if it is detected.

The four fatal cases in Will County in 2024 involved three that went undiagnosed and one that was detected too late.

Too many times, tuberculosis is not considered when diagnosing patients with perstent coughing, said Dr. Dan Garganera, medical director for the Sunny Hill Tuberculosis Clinic.

“Everyone who has a cough for three weeks or more should be checked for tuberculosis,” Garganera said.

He also warned of latent tuberculosis, which can be present in a person for years without causing any symptoms until immune systems begin to break down because of old age or other diseases.

Latent tuberculosis can be detected and is easier to treat than active tuberculosis, Garganera said.

“Treat latent tuberculosis before it becomes active”, he said.

The Sunny Hill sanitarium opened at a time when the United States was trying to deal with the killer disease called the “white plague' because of the sickly appearance of those suffering from the disease.

Douglas Ruth, president of the Sunny Hill board, referred to the “white plague” image as he talked about “the daily battle to combat the disease” that continues today.

In 1925, there were 536 sanitariums in the United States with beds for 670,000 patients, said Ryan Croke, first assistant deputy for health and human services for Gov. JB Pritzker.

Sunny Hill, too, opened as a sanitarium, although there is no sanitarium today.

“You continue to be in the forefront of tuberculosis prevention and treatment,” Croke told Sunny Hill staff at the event.

The 19 cases of tuberculosis in Will County last year were among 353 in Illinois, according to presentations at the event.

Will County ranks fourth among Illinois counties in numbers of tuberculosis cases.

In the United States, there were 9,615 cases in 2023, which is relatively unchanged from the 9,536 cases in 2015.

Tuberculosis remains a larger health problem in Africa and Asia.

In the United States, the largest number of tuberculosis cases are found in immigrants.

Walsh said while the largest number of cases are found in people born outside the United States, native-born Americans should be aware that they are not immune from the disease.

“It can affect anybody, and that means everybody in this room,” Walsh said. “It’s important to have a vigilant outlook.”

.