photo by: Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga / Kansas News Service

The Unified Government Public Health Department of Wyandotte County in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Thursday confirmed a tuberculosis outbreak in Wyandotte County, with more cases than the entire state recorded last year.

In response to questions from the Kansas News Service about the outbreak, a spokesperson for KDHE confirmed there have been 49 recorded cases of tuberculosis in Wyandotte County since the start of the year. She said the federal government had recorded 46 cases in all of Kansas last year.

There are an additional seven confirmed cases this year in neighboring Johnson County.

Overall, 75 people statewide have been treated this year for the lung disease and two people have died. Officials say the disease requires consistent contact to spread.

“There is a very low risk of infection to the general public in these communities,” KDHE Communications Director Jill Bronaugh told the Kansas News Service in an email.

The county health departments and the state are working together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“To ensure that patients are receiving appropriate treatment, which will limit the ability to spread this disease and prevent additional cases from occurring,” Bronaugh said.

Anyone who suspects they’ve been exposed to tuberculosis should contact their local health department.

A state dashboard updated every Wednesday includes more data on the cases.

Tuberculosis is a respiratory disease that is not widespread in the United States. However, 40 states and Washington, D.C., reported increases in 2023.

Dr. Allen Greiner serves as a local health officer for the Unified Government Public Health Department of Wyandotte County. He’s been in that role for more than 20 years and is also a family practitioner for the University of Kansas Health System.

Greiner called the current case surge in Wyandotte County “unprecedented.” He said normally Wyandotte County sees under 10 cases annually and he has never seen a tuberculosis surge this large before.

According to Greiner, starting in 2021, there was a small cluster of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cases in Wyandotte County. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health officials diagnosed 13 people with active cases and nine people with latent cases of the disease. Greiner said the health department was successful in treating those patients. Greiner said there have not been new cases of the drug-resistant strain in a year and the current version spreading is not drug-resistant.

Tuberculosis requires intensive treatment. Greiner said during the current outbreak, it has been difficult for the health department to get people to comply with testing and treatment because of a lack of trust in the medical system.

About tuberculosis:

According to the CDC, there are two types of tuberculosis: latent tuberculosis and active tuberculosis disease. With latent tuberculosis, people are not contagious and do not have symptoms. With the active form of the disease, people experience symptoms such as a persistent cough, fever and weight loss and can spread tuberculosis.

Similar to COVID-19, tuberculosis is an airborne disease. However, it is a lot harder to catch than the coronavirus. The CDC’s website says there are multiple prescription drug regimens used in the U.S. to treat tuberculosis. Treatment can take anywhere from four to nine months to ensure the bacteria is under control and cannot infect other people. It is crucial that infected people take all of their medication.

If left untreated, tuberculosis can be deadly. It is the second-deadliest infectious disease globally, second only to COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.

People who are immunocompromised, have conditions like AIDS, HIV or diabetes, or who drink alcohol or smoke are at a higher risk of developing tuberculosis.

Last fall, a handful of people at Olathe Northwest High School tested positive for tuberculosis. Prior to that, a small number of cases were identified in Wyandotte County.