Kansas is currently facing one the largest tuberculosis outbreaks in U.S. history with 67 confirmed active cases and 79 confirmed latent cases.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) says Kansas is facing the largest documented tuberculosis outbreak in American history.

The Kansas City area is facing one of the country’s largest outbreaks of tuberculosis in recent years. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as of Jan. 24, there have been 67 confirmed cases of active TB in the state,

Common symptoms of active TB include coughing, chest pains, fever, fatigue and coughing up blood or phlegm. The airborne respiratory illness is usually transmitted during prolonged close contact with an infected person.

An outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City area has grown into one of the largest ever recorded in the United States, with dozens of active cases of the infectious disease reported, according to health officials.

A large outbreak of tuberculosis has been reported in Kansas; is tuberculosis a public health concern in Louisiana? Find out here.

More than 60 people were being treated in the Kansas City area as of Friday, according to the state health department.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clarified the Kansas outbreak isn’t the largest in modern history. Outbreaks between 2015 and 2017, in Georgia homeless shelters, and a 2021 nationwide outbreak resulting from patients infected from contaminated bone grafts have been larger, the federal agency said in an email.

A wave of tuberculosis cases hitting the Kansas City, Kansas, metro area has caused dozens of illnesses and at least two deaths, according to the state health department.

Kansas City is currently facing the largest documented tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in the United States. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), there are 67 active TB cases and 79 latent cases,

The outbreak poses “very low risk to the general public, including the surrounding counties,” the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.