Jan. 29, 2025 – Two counties in the Kansas City area continue to grapple with what is now a yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis. Caused by airborne bacteria, the disease is highly contagious and has now sickened dozens of people and drawn on-the-ground assistance in Kansas from the CDC.
Kansas health officials say the risk to the general public is “very low.”
TB cases are not entirely uncommon in the United States. In 2023, there were 9,633 TB cases reported, CDC data shows, and in 2022, there were 565 TB deaths.
This latest outbreak has proven difficult to contain as it now stretches into its second year. The first cases were identified in January 2024. Since then, 67 people have had active infections, and another 79 people had latent infections, meaning the bacteria were detected but inactive and not causing symptoms. About 1 in 10 people with latent infections will get sick, the CDC says. People with latent infections do not spread the disease.
The were also two reported deaths last year linked to the outbreak.
Details of who has been infected, the possible source, or what connections the sickened people may have to one another have not been reported. Past large outbreaks involved homeless shelters in Georgia and contaminated donated tissue used for bone grafting.
Before the current outbreak, the CDC estimated that 13 million people living in the U.S. had latent TB.
TB typically affects the lungs, although it can also impact the brain, kidneys, and spine. Symptoms include a cough that lasts at least three weeks and may produce blood or phlegm, chest pain, fatigue, weight loss, fever, and loss of appetite. The disease is treated with antibiotics.
The bacteria can remain in the air for several hours after a sick person coughs, speaks, or sings.
A CDC spokesperson told ABC News that the outbreak is one of the largest in U.S. history, although it is not the largest. Although briefly unseated by COVID, TB is the leading cause of death due to an infectious disease worldwide, with more than 1.5 million annual deaths.
Four CDC employees are in Kansas to help investigate contacts and to help with testing and screening, The New York Times reported.
A TB vaccine does exist, but people in the U.S. typically do not get it because of the low risk of TB infection.
