Important Takeaways:
- A tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas City, Kansas, has become the largest documented on record in the United States.
- As of Jan. 24, 2025, there have been 67 active cases reported in Wyandotte County (60) and Johnson County (7) since January 2024, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
- There have also been 79 latent, or asymptomatic, tuberculosis (TB) infections reported over the last year, including 77 in Wyandotte County and two in Johnson County.
- In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, KDHE confirmed that the outbreak is “still ongoing, which means there could be more cases.”
- TB is an infectious disease that most often affects the lungs, according to KDHE. It is caused by bacteria that spreads through the air when infected people cough, speak or sing.
- It is not spread by kissing, shaking hands, sharing food and drink, or touching objects, the same source stated.
- TB symptoms can include coughing, chest pain, coughing up blood or mucus, fatigue, weight loss, fever and night sweats.
- “One simple blood test can identify this sleeping killer before it awakes, and one course of antibiotics can stop it from infecting the people we love,” she said.
- A person with active TB will no longer be infectious “shortly after beginning treatment” with antibiotics, according to KDHE.
- Wendy Thanassi, M.D., senior medical director of TB and Infectious diseases at QIAGEN North America
- “Kansas is not alone in its battle against TB, which kills more than a million people each year,” said the San Francisco-based doctor.
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