KANSAS CITY – Tuberculosis continues to circulate on the Kansas side of the state line, after a major outbreak in the area in 2024.
According to the latest data from the Kansas Department of Health, so far this year there have been a total of 9 active tuberculosis cases and 48 latent cases in the state. The infections have been in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, along with Cowley and Sedgewick.
In 2024, there were 113 active TB cases and 639 latent TB cases in Kansas. Over half of those active cases were in Wyandotte County. Johnson County had the second most.
At least two people died last year’s outbreak, which was one of the largest in U.S. history since the CDC began counting cases in the 1950s.
What is tuberculosis?
TB is caused by bacteria that lives in the people’s lungs and spreads through the air when they talk, cough or sing. It is very infectious, but only spreads when a person has symptoms.
Once it infects a person, TB can take two forms. In “active” TB, the person has a long-standing cough and sometimes bloody phlegm, night sweats, fever, weight loss and swollen glands. In “latent” TB, the bacteria hibernates in the person’s lungs or elsewhere in the body. It does not cause symptoms and does not spread to others.
How is tuberculosis treated?
TB is treated with antibiotics over the course of several months. A vaccine is available, but generally not recommended in the U.S. because the risk of infection is low and getting the vaccine can interfere with the test doctors use to diagnose the disease.
TB is a much bigger problem outside of the U.S.
TB is a leading cause of infectious disease death worldwide, and has been on the rise.
In 2023, the bacteria killed 1.25 million people globally and infected 8 million, the highest count since the World Health Organization started keeping track.
While tuberculosis was a much bigger danger in the U.S. in earlier generations, it has been trending back up in recent years. In 2023 there were more than 9,600 cases nationwide, the highest in a decade, according to the CDC.