A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas area has raised concerns among local health experts. While not the largest outbreak in U.S. history as initially claimed, the high case counts have been described as a 'stark warning' by Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Kansas Health System.
Tuberculosis, caused by bacteria that spreads through the air when infected individuals talk, cough, or sing, is a highly infectious disease. It can manifest in two forms: 'active' TB, characterized by symptoms such as a persistent cough, bloody phlegm, night sweats, fever, weight loss, and swollen glands, and 'latent' TB, where the bacteria remain dormant in the body without causing symptoms or spreading to others.
As of Jan. 24, 67 people are undergoing treatment for active TB, primarily in Wyandotte County, with an additional 79 individuals having latent TB. The provisional 2024 count for Kansas shows 79 active TB cases and 213 latent cases in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, although not all are directly linked to the outbreak.
While the situation is showing signs of improvement, with health officials stating they are 'trending in the right direction,' concerns remain about the scale of the outbreak. Despite claims by Kansas health officials that this is the largest documented TB outbreak in U.S. history, the CDC has refuted this, citing previous larger outbreaks in Georgia homeless shelters and a nationwide incident linked to contaminated tissue used in bone transplants.
TB is typically treated with antibiotics over several months, and while a vaccine exists, it is not widely recommended in the U.S. due to low infection risks and potential interference with diagnostic tests. Globally, TB remains a significant public health challenge, causing 1.25 million deaths and infecting 8 million people in 2023, marking the highest count since the WHO began tracking the disease.
Although tuberculosis was once a more prevalent concern in the U.S., recent years have seen a resurgence in cases, with over 9,600 reported nationwide in 2023, the highest in a decade according to the CDC.
