A CDC spokesperson says the agency is responding but noted that it’s not the largest outbreak in U.S. history, as has been claimed.
A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in the Kansas City, Kansas, area has left at least two people dead and sparking claims that it is the worst such episode in U.S. history.
Some Kansas health officials called the outbreak “the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history” since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began counting TB cases in the 1950s. However, the CDC has disputed that claim.
A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times on Wednesday that the Kansas outbreak is not the largest in U.S. history,” noting that an outbreak in Georgia between 2015 and 2017 resulted in “more than 170 cases of TB disease and over 400 cases of inactive TB.”
Later, a nationwide outbreak of tuberculosis involving 113 patients occurred in 2021 “after surgical implantation of contaminated bone allografts,” the spokesperson said.
During the current outbreak, the spokesperson said, four CDC staff are “providing on-site assistance including contact investigation, testing and screening, and working with community leaders on health education.”
Details of the Outbreak
In an update on Wednesday, the Kansas Division of Public Health said the outbreak is mainly in Wyandotte County, and it is a “very low risk to the general public, including the surrounding counties.”
So far, 60 people have been confirmed to have active tuberculosis in Wyandotte County and another seven cases were reported in Johnson County since 2024. Meanwhile, the number of latent tuberculosis cases since 2024 is 79, with 77 in Wyandotte County and two in Johnson County.
The outbreak has killed two people since it started in January 2024, Kansas state health department spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh said.
The state health agency has not elaborated on the cause of the outbreak or if it is centered around a specific facility.
The situation is improving, however. “We are trending in the right direction right now,” Ashley Goss, deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the state Senate’s Committee on Public Health and Welfare on Jan. 21.
