Tracking by the state health department shows that another 79 people have been diagnosed with latent tuberculosis, which means the bacteria that causes the disease is inactive and the illness cannot spread.
Since January of last year, when cases related to this outbreak were first reported, two people have died.
Why This Tuberculosis Outbreak Is Unusual
“Typically, in the past, we see disease spread in locations where people are kept close together, but there’s no indication right now that everyone is in a similar vicinity or proximity, such as a large apartment complex,” says Amit “Bobby” Mahajan, MD, a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association and the medical director for the Inova Interventional Pulmonology and Complex Airway Disease Program in Fairfax, Virginia.
He also calls this outbreak “odd” because related cases are being reported a year after the initial infections were detected.
“The situation is pretty aggressive in terms of what we see compared to the norm,” says Dr. Mahajan.
TB Risk to Public Remains Low
What Is Tuberculosis?
The bacteria that cause the disease can spread from person-to-person through the air. This may occur when someone with active TB coughs, speaks, or sings.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, warns that the effects of the illness are often miserable and long-lasting.
“With the typical lung infection, you’re going to have prolonged symptoms of cough — maybe bloody cough, night sweats, and weight loss, which can last weeks to months,” he says. “And these [symptoms] are going to be prolonged — over weeks to months. It’s not just going to be a week or 10 days.”
Other symptoms to look for include chest pain, fever, and chills.
TB Isn’t as Contagious as Other Respiratory Illnesses
While tuberculosis is a serious disease, it’s not as transmissible as flu, COVID-19, measles, and other illnesses.
“It is very difficult to contract tuberculosis,” says Dr. Hawkinson. “Certainly we know tuberculosis is spread through the air, but it is difficult to catch this infection, even when you’re in a room with somebody who’s coughing.”
Still, if you have been around anyone who has been infected and you are experiencing symptoms, Hawkinson urges you to go to a doctor and get checked out.
Blood and skin tests to identify infections and treatments are available for those diagnosed with the disease.
How Prevalent Is Tuberculosis?
Public Health Departments Lead the Fight Against TB
At the moment, the investigation into the Kansas outbreak is still ongoing and scientists have yet to determine what’s driving the spread.
Peter Chin-Hong, MD, an infectious-disease specialist and a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, suggests that cutbacks in public health funding in recent years may have played a role.
“We need to have well-funded public health departments to identify and treat people who are infected,” he says. “In addition, during the COVID response for the past few years, reduced access to medical care may have led to fewer people being screened and identified with infection in the community, and even more resources were diverted from TB control in the community.”
“As long as we have the appropriate state and national resources to educate people, and the ability to treat this aggressively with medications, I don’t think there should be anything to worry about,” Mahajan says.
