An outbreak of tuberculosis in Kansas has infected dozens of people in the state over the past year, raising concern from health officials even as they note it is not the greatest outbreak of disease the country has faced.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.
The Context
Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Deputy Secretary Ashley Goss told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee that Kansas has "the largest outbreak they've ever had in history," with a spokesperson later clarifying that the tuberculosis outbreak is "the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, refuted this assertion in an email response to a Newsweek request for comment, citing two cases that occurred in the past decade: An outbreak that spread through Georgia homeless shelters, infecting over 170 people between 2015 to 2017; and a nationwide outbreak that infected 113 patients linked to contaminated tissue used in bone transplants.
How Many Tuberculosis Cases Have Been Reported in Kansas?
A tuberculosis outbreak has hit unprecedented levels for the state, with 67 active cases as of January 24. This is down from 79 active cases reported in a provisional 2024 count.
Sixty cases remain localized to Kansas City's Wyandotte County. The remaining seven have occurred in neighboring Johnson County.
A medical worker shows an X-ray result during a tuberculosis screening at a health center in Venezuela on March 14, 2024.A medical worker shows an X-ray result during a tuberculosis screening at a health center in Venezuela on March 14, 2024.Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images
Is Tuberculosis Contagious?
Tuberculosis is usually an airborne infection spread through coughing, speaking, or other similar actions by an infected person. The U.S. recorded over 8,000 cases of tuberculosis in 2022, making it the second-most deadly infectious killer after COVID-19, according to the American Lung Association (ALA).
The association reported that tuberculosis remains the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, partially due to latent tuberculosis, which is the term for the asymptomatic infection.
While there are 67 documented active cases of tuberculosis in Kansas, the state has reported another 79 latent cases—all but two of which are in Wyandotte County. The state provisionally reported around 213 latent cases in 2024.
The CDC estimates that 13 million Americans (just under 4 percent of the total population) live with latent tuberculosis, one in 10 of which will turn into an active infection without treatment.
What Do Symptoms Of Tuberculosis Look Like?
Tuberculosis symptoms include a range of respiratory conditions, including a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, pain in the chest and coughing up blood or phlegm, according to the CDC. Other active symptoms include weakness or fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, chills or fever and sweating at night.
The infection can hit other parts of the body, resulting in varying symptoms depending on the location of the infection. If the infection reaches lymph nodes, it can cause "firm red or purple swelling under the skin."
If the infection hits the kidneys, the infected person may find blood in their urine. Infection in other body parts, such as the brain, spin or larynx, can lead to intense pain in that area.
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Is There A Vaccine For Tuberculosis?
The only available vaccine for tuberculosis is the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which is not generally recommended in the U.S. Health experts largely warn against it due to concerns about variable effectiveness and possible complications such as creating a false positive on a skin test.
KDHE spokesperson Jill Bronaugh told The Kansas City Star that the department advised against the vaccine due to the "low risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), the variable effectiveness of the vaccine against adult pulmonary TB, and the vaccine's potential interference with tuberculin skin test reactivity."
A review of BCG by British health magazine The Lancet determined that the vaccine proved helpful with infants but offered no effectiveness for adolescents and adults "after close exposure."
"There should be little debate about the effectiveness of infant BCG vaccination against tuberculosis in early childhood and particularly against the most severe forms of disease, including disseminated or miliary tuberculosis and tuberculosis meningitis," the study authors wrote.
What Is The Treatment For Tuberculosis?
The most common treatment for tuberculosis is a regimen of antibiotics lasting between half a year to a full year. A bacterial infection could take longer to combat, while a latent infection could be resolved within 4 months.
The ALA said that treatment can lead to improvement within weeks. Failure to stick to the regimen will lead to possible relapse and resurgence of the infection.
More dangerously, a reinfection following an incomplete regimen could contribute to developing drug-resistant variants of the virus, according to the ALA.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis can take years to treat and could lead to other side effects.
Standard side-effects include upset stomach, tingling or numbness in the hands or feet, itchy skin caused by rashes, blurred vision, dark-colored urine and possible weakness or fatigue lasting for longer than three days.
What People Are Saying
A Centers for Disease Control spokesperson told Newsweek: "The ongoing tuberculosis (TB) disease outbreak in Kansas is not the largest outbreak in U.S. history," adding, "Four CDC staff are providing on-site assistance including contact investigation, testing and screening, and working with community leaders on health education."
What Happens Next
KDHE has required all tuberculosis cases to be reported to the local and state health departments so that they can provide medication to treat the infections. Preventative care for individuals with tuberculosis infections will also be provided.
The department has noted that the effort to combat tuberculosis faces a few unique challenges, namely an increasingly diversifying population that requires "culturally competent skills and cross-culturally informed staff."
However, improved drug research will hopefully provide more effective medication and reduce side effects, KDHE said on its website.
