The Largest Tuberculosis Outbreak In U.S. History Is Happening Right Now. Here's How To Protect Yourself, According To An Infectious Disease Doctor
It's easy to think that tuberculosis is an illness from another era. But the United States is actually experiencing the largest tuberculosis outbreak in its history.
The outbreak, which is concentrated in Kansas, seems to have been going on since 2021, but a lot of cases have been reported since 2024. Making things even more complicated is that the form of tuberculosis circulating right now appears to be resistant to two common treatment methods for the disease.
Unfortunately, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other government organizations are not allowed to publicly weigh in on the outbreak (or any other matters) due to a communications pause put in place by the Trump administration, per The Washington Post. So… there are some unanswered questions.
Here's what we know about the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas right now, plus how the infection spreads.
Meet the expert: Thomas Russo, MD, is a professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York.
Unfortunately, yes, there is a tuberculosis outbreak happening in Kansas, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The department has documented 66 active cases of tuberculosis since 2024 and 79 latent infections.
"Active" cases means that someone is contagious and having symptoms. Meanwhile, "latent" means that someone has tuberculosis but doesn't have symptoms and can't spread it to others, explains Thomas Russo, MD, a professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. Latent cases can turn into active cases, he points out.
'Currently, Kansas has the largest outbreak that they've ever had in history,' Ashley Goss, a deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on January 28, per The Topeka Capital-Journal.
A CDC report issued in 2023 shows the outbreak may stretch back to 2021.
It's not entirely clear. The 2023 CDC report found that the outbreak was focused on four households, and it seems to have spread from there.
'Part of it is that some of these strains have been resistant to certain [medications]—perhaps initial treatment wasn't appropriate that could have halted spread,' Russo says.
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, per the CDC. Tuberculosis spreads through the air from one person to another. Someone with an active infection can put the germs into the air when they cough, speak, or sing.
Those germs can hang out in the air for several hours, according to the CDC. If you breathe them in, you're likely to become sick.
People with active tuberculosis infections can experience a range of symptoms. According to the CDC, those include:
A cough that lasts three weeks or longer
Chest pain
Coughing up blood or phlegm
Weakness or fatigue
Weight loss
Loss of appetite
Chills
Fever
Night sweats
Yes, tuberculosis is curable. It's usually treated with a six-month course of four antibiotics, including rifampicin and isoniazid, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
When people have drug-resistant tuberculosis, the treatment is longer and more complex, per the WHO. 'We just need to be cognizant of which drugs are going to be active against it,' Russo says.
The best way to protect yourself from tuberculosis is to avoid people who are obviously sick. And, if you've been diagnosed with tuberculosis, it's crucial to follow the prescribed treatment plan.
By the way, there is a tuberculosis vaccine, but it's not commonly used in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Overall, Russo says this outbreak isn't something most people should be worried about. 'The overall magnitude of this outbreak is small, and we do have treatments for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis,' he says. 'Will there be a few more cases? Probably. But I'm not concerned that this will turn into an overwhelming number of cases.'
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