Health department says tuberculosis outbreak has not spread to Lawrence area

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Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health is located at 200 Maine St.

With concerns rising about a tuberculosis outbreak in the Kansas City area, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has indicated that the outbreak has not extended to Douglas County.

No active cases have been reported in the Lawrence area, the health department said in a news release Wednesday, and “the risk of contracting tuberculosis for the general public is very low.”

The news release indicated that a person with active tuberculosis, or TB, is no longer infectious shortly after beginning treatment, and a person with latent TB is not infectious and cannot spread germs to others.

“While anyone can get TB,” the release said, “only those who have repeated, long-term exposure to a person with an active infection are at risk.” It gave as examples working, attending school or living with someone who is actively infected.

TB is spread through the air (coughing, for example), the release noted, not through touching.

More information about TB can be found on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and CDC websites.

The TB outbreak in Wyandotte and Johnson counties has killed two people since it started in January 2024, Kansas state health department spokeswoman Jill Bronaugh said. Health officials in Kansas say there is no threat to the general public.

As The Associated Press reported, as of January 2024, 67 people are being treated for active TB, most of them in Wyandotte County, Bronaugh said.