Kansas City Tuberculosis Outbreak: A Deadly Wake-Up Call

The Kansas City, Kansas, area is currently experiencing a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak, with 2 deaths, 67 active cases, and 79 latent cases reported so far. This surge comes amid a broader rise in TB cases across the US and globally over the past 3 years.

In an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Michael A. Bernstein, MD, director of pulmonary and critical care at Stamford Health, discusses what is known about the outbreak and addresses common misconceptions about TB as it gains more public attention.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

What is known so far about the recent TB outbreak in Kansas? What factors may have contributed to its spread?

Unfortunately, from our perspective as community lung doctors, not an enormous amount of information has been dissipated down other than that, in Kansas, currently, there's one of the largest outbreaks of TB in the last 50 years. The numbers I had seen are a couple hundred patients have been infected with TB, and there have been 2 deaths from tuberculosis reported in that group.

TB is a very common disease, but people actually dying from TB is not that common, and I think that's one of the unique aspects. Exactly what community and what risk factors put this group of patients at risk has not really been as well known as I'd like to know, but I certainly know this is an ongoing issue. TB is common, but this is a blip that's far bigger than we've seen in the past.

In light of this recent outbreak, what are the biggest misconceptions about TB that the public should be aware of?

I think the first misconception about TB is that it's a rare and uncommon disease. TB, I often use the term, is a romantic disease. It's been mentioned in literature, operas, and movies. I'm a big musical theater fan, so Fantine from Les Misérables has died of TB.

We think of it as something that doesn't really impact us anymore in 2025, but TB has been here, is here, and it's something that's relatively common. So, the fact that we would see a TB outbreak doesn't surprise most pulmonologists.

The part that's a little bit unique is that people are actually dying because it tends to not be a tremendously fatal disease as there are decent treatments, but it's impacted a pretty big community in Kansas; that's part of the issue that's made this unique.