Kansas deals with greater tuberculosis outbreaks

Kansas is struggling with what state health officials say is one of the biggest tuberculosis outbreaks there since the 1950s, one that has infected dozens of people.

The epicenter of the outbreak, which began in January in January and was blamed for two deaths in 2024, is in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Both are part of Kansas City, Kan., Metropolitan Area in the eastern part of the state.

It is unclear what caused the outbreak and state health officials did not immediately answer questions about the origin.

While the State Health Agency described the risk of the public as “very low”, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had four on -site on site in Kansas from Tuesday to help with contact investigation, test and screening, a spokeswoman for the center said in an E email. The team also coordinated with community leaders to educate the public about tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by bacteria and most often affect the lungs.

“This outbreak is still underway, which means there may be more cases,” wrote Jill Bronaugh, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, in an E email on Tuesday.

In short of coronavirus as the world’s deadliest infectious disease during pandemic, tuberculosis recovered the gloomy distinction in 2023When it took 1.25 million lives, according to the World Health Organization. The disease that can be cured spreads through the air as infected people cough, sneezing or spitting. Without treatment, which usually involves antibiotics, tuberculosis can be fatal. Symptoms may include a prolonged cough, fever and inexplicable weight loss.

From Friday, the last day when data was available from health officials, 67 people were treated for active cases of tuberculosis as part of the outbreak in Kansas. There were 60 cases in Wyandotte County and seven in Johnson County.

Another 79 people in the two counties carried in hibernation tuberculosis, often referred to as latent cases. Infected people who do not have the disease are not contagious, according to the World Health Organization, which estimates that a quarter of the global population is infected with tuberculosis bacteria. WHO predicts that 5 to 10 percent of these people will eventually have symptoms and develop the disease.

In a budget presentation to Kansas legislation on January 14, Ashley Goss, State Deputy Secretary of Public Health, said that the people treated for tuberculosis seemed to recover.

Kansas is not the only state in the region dealing with tuberculosis. In Missouri, its neighbor to the east, 87 cases of the disease had been recorded from January 1 to Tuesday, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Thirty -three of these cases were detected in the Northwestern Region of the State, which includes communities in Kansas City, Mo., Region.

While the outbreak in Kansas has drawn attention, it is not the largest in the latest US story, according to CDC

One Outbreaks at homeless shelters in Georgia From 2015 to 2017, there was responsible for more than 170 cases of tuberculosis and more than 400 latent cases.

By 2021, 113 people all over the US got the disease after Receiving contaminated bones Allograft tissue from an infected donor.