A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state health official claimed last week.

The largest tuberculosis outbreak in the U.S. occurred from 2015 through 2017 at a homeless shelter in Georgia, which was responsible for more than 170 active cases and more than 400 latent cases, according to the CDC, which began tracking TB cases in the 1950s.

In late January 2025, news outlets reported on an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in the Kansas City, Kansas, area. According to several of these reports, and posts sharing the news on social media, the outbreak was "unprecedented,