Kansas Tuberculosis Outbreak Largest Recorded in History

Posed January 28, 2025

Updated 11:06 a.m., January 29, 2025

Kansas is experiencing an outbreak of tuberculosis, the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history, according to Kansas health officials.

As of Jan. 24, Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials reported they have documented 67 active cases and 79 latent infections of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, KS, metro since 2024.

“Currently, Kansas has the largest outbreak that they’ve ever had in history,” Ashley Goss,  deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on Jan. 21, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Friday.

Wyandotte County has reported 60 active cases while Johnson County has reported 7 active cases. Wyandotte County currently has 77 latent infection cases and Johnson County has 2. KDHE said there is very low risk to the general public, including the surrounding counties.

In 2023, the KDHE reported 51 active cases of tuberculosis. In 2024, the department reported 109 active cases. To date, there is only one current reported active case so far in 2025, according to KDHE reportable infectious disease statistics.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium that usually affects the lungs, but can affect other parts of the body. There are two types of TB infections; active disease and latent infections. Active disease makes people feel sick and can be spread to others while latent infections don’t make people feel sick, and can’t be spread to others.

Updates

“We appreciate the hard work of KDHE as they respond to this outbreak and keep our community safe,” said Kansas City, Kansas Mayor Tyrone Garner in an email statement on Tuesday. 

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County encouraged residents to remain calm regarding media coverage of tuberculosis and reiterated the KDHE’s previous statement regarding relative risk to the public is low.

On Wednesday, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment released an email statement regarding the outbreak and confirmed the seven active cases and two latent cases in Johnson County have completed treatment and are not infectious. JCDHE said it will continue monitoring the outbreak and stated the potential of additional cases among Johnson County residents could still be identified as testing continues. 

Track the KDHE’s outbreak report, here.