Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:35PM on January 27 with comments from a KDHE spokesperson.
A tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in Kansas City has become the largest documented TB outbreak on record in the United States.
Data on the outbreak from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) show that 67 active TB cases and 79 latent cases have been reported since the beginning of 2024 in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, which are part of the greater Kansas City area. Most of the cases have been in Wyandotte County. KDHE says it has been working with local health departments in response to the outbreak and is following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure patients are receiving proper treatment.
“The current Kansas City, Kan. Metro tuberculosis (TB) outbreak is the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history, presently (since the 1950’s, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started monitoring and reporting TB cases),” KDHE communications director Jill Bronaugh told CIDRAP News in an email. “This outbreak is still ongoing, which means that there could be more cases.”
Bronaugh said KDHE reported 79 active and 213 latent TB cases in 2024, adding that those cases are still provisional and are being reviewed by the CDC for confirmation. Two TB deaths in 2024 are associated with the outbreak.
“While there is a very low risk of infection to the general public in these communities, KDHE is working to ensure that patients are receiving appropriate treatment, which will limit the ability to spread this disease and prevent additional cases from occurring,” Bronaugh said.
Rising incidence of TB in the United States
In September 2023, KDHE researchers published a case report in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on an outbreak of multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB in Kansas City that involved 13 people. They noted that 37 to 43 TB cases were reported annually in Kansas from 2019 through 2021. That number rose to 52 cases in 2022, driven in part by the MDR-TB outbreak.
The outbreak comes amid rising TB incidence in the United States. According to CDC data, 9,633 TB cases were reported in the United States in 2023—the highest case count since 2013. It was the third straight year of increases in US TB case counts, and the incidence rate of 2.9 cases per 100,000 persons represented a 15% increase from 2022. Most cases were in people born outside the United States.
The most recent global TBÂ report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows 8.2 million people were diagnosed with TB in 2023, the highest number recorded by WHO since it began global TB monitoring in 1995.
