When someone in Harris County has a bad case of tuberculosis, chances are they'll turn to Dr. Elizabeth Guy.

"We do have segments of our society where there is active transmission of the disease,” said Guy.

As Ben Taub's TB expert, she knows the numbers.

In Harris County the rate of TB infection is 10.2 for every 100,000 people. That's more than twice the national rate of 4.8. Ours is one of the worst rates in the entire country.

“This is not acceptable. We have to do more,” said Guy.

TB is spread through close contact. And some areas, like the Third Ward, have infection rates so high: they rival some of the poorest countries in the world.

Immigration is one of the problems. Forty percent of Harris County's TB cases are from people who moved here from other countries. But 60 percent of patients have always lived in the US.

"That has to wake us up. Half. That means that people are getting sick within our community,” said Guy.

Jails are especially worried about TB.

"One of the issues in a jail is that everybody is housed together in very close proximity,” said Dr. Michael Seale who oversees the medical services for the county.

At the Harris County Jail, all inmates get a chest X-ray. Last year, 28 tested positive for TB - so they were placed in isolated cells, and treated.

When a homeless person comes to the Star of Hope shelter, they're given a skin test, but only a few have tested positive.

"It hasn't been a major problem,” said the shelter’s Louis Durden.

But funding has been a problem. Four years ago, Baylor paid for UV lights to clean the air - but the funding dried up, and the lights burned out.

Funding for research into TB trends in Harris County has also been cut.

Fifteen years ago the federal government wanted to completely eradicate TB by the year 2010. While the number of cases here has been dropping -- we still have more than twice as many infections in our area as almost anywhere else.