State public health officials are calling an ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in northeast Kansas “unprecedented.” The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports 67 active cases of tuberculosis and 79 infections in the Kansas City metro area in 2024. In a Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare meeting on Tuesday, January 21st, Deputy Secretary of KDHE, Ashley Goss, said the department is working collaboratively with the centers for disease control and prevention.
Tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that most often affects the lungs. It spreads through the air when people with TB cough, sneeze or spit. However, the CDC insists that people in the U. S. are at very low risk, despite the World Health Organization saying nearly one and a half million people died worldwide last year due to TB, saying it has probably returned to being the worlds leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, replacing covid 19.
