A wave of tuberculosis cases hitting the Kansas City, Kansas, metro area has caused dozens of illnesses and at least two deaths, according to the state health department.
Cases related to the outbreak were first reported in January 2024, and there were two reported TB deaths last year associated with this outbreak, Jill Bronaugh, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Tuesday.
“This outbreak is still ongoing, which means that there could be more cases,” Bronaugh said in an email. “We are working with and following the guidance of the CDC.”
As of Friday, there have been at least 67 people treated for confirmed active TB infections in the outbreak, and there have been 79 confirmed latent cases, in which TB is detected in the body but it’s not causing disease and making people sick.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, the director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System, reported that typically,
he encounters only a handful of active tuberculosis (TB) cases each year. However, the current outbreak stands out due to its extensive reach and the number of reported cases.
Hawkinson noted that most patients diagnosed during this outbreak have not experienced severe illness, although there are some individuals who have developed more serious symptoms.
According to updates from Kansas’ health department, this TB outbreak has been described as “the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history,”
a characterization that is significant since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began monitoring TB cases in the 1950s.
In response, the CDC challenged this claim by highlighting a previous outbreak in Georgia’s homeless shelters that occurred from 2015 to 2017, which saw over 170 active TB cases and more than 400 inactive cases.
The CDC also referenced a national outbreak in 2021, linked to a bone graft product, that affected 113 patients post-surgery.
Tuberculosis is an airborne bacterial infection primarily impacting the lungs.
Symptoms can include chest pain, general weakness, and the coughing up of blood or mucus from the respiratory tract, as outlined by the CDC.
