Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

[mhandley]

Not being from the US, I find it odd that the article didn't mention anything about vaccination. Until 2005, pretty much everyone in the UK received the BCG vaccine. After that the TB rate fell too low to merit routine vaccination, but even today it's still given routinely in a few areas where the rate merits it, or if there's elevated risk of exposure via family from abroad, etc. Has vaccination in general become such a divisive topic in the US that articles about diseases for which we used to routinely vaccinate don't even mention that a vaccine is available and greatly reduces the risk of the most severe forms of TB, such as TB meningitis?

[danw1979]

Kind of related to your point… I remember my maternal Grandmother was looking after me one day and I’d either missed or skipped my earlier vaccination appointment in school (which, I think was a BCG or booster, it was in the early 1990s). She was raised by her maternal Grandmother after her mother died from TB when she was 2 years old. Her father died of… something infectious when she was teenager

(the oral history is obviously a bit sketchy, but she used to tell me her father also caught TB - cholera maybe ? - when he was removing bodies from the flooded Balham tube station in 1940 - https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/75th-anniversary-of-the...)

Well, I got quite the scolding about missing my jabs and a stern lecture about how many awful diseases have been cured because of vaccination. I could never forget how emotional she was about it.

To people born in the early 20th century, seeing the effects first hand of the vaccination programmes of the mid 20th century (not to mention antibiotics) must have seemed miraculous. I think we’ve lived without these diseases for so long that some people (stupid, selfish people) simply think they don’t exist or pose a threat any more.

[ksenzee]

It’s a valid question, but I don’t think the current vaccine-unfriendly climate in the US is the reason why the BCG vaccine wasn’t mentioned. BCG wasn’t routinely given in the US even in the last half of the 20th century when vaccines were universally popular. I was surprised to learn a TB vaccine even existed when I started a public health−adjacent job in the 2000s. Our public health establishment just isn’t convinced it’s worth giving here.

[gtgvdfc]

You got the BCG vaccine in the UK? Are you sure?

I got it when I was a toddler in the late 80s and I still remember the excruciating pain and have the scar to show for it.

I grew up in the third world. I have never met a Westerner with this scar unless they got it in the sixties.

[poulpy123]

I just checked and it's not mandatory anymore in France, which probably absurd because there is a surge of tuberculosis due to migration and international travel

[exe34]

natural selection also applies to memes. memes that cause their host to fail to raise children to reproductive age will get weeded out, but it can take many generations.

[williadc]

John Green, author of "The Fault in Our Stars", "Turtles All the Way Down", "The Anthropocene Reviewed", and other fine books is releasing a book called "Everything is Tuberculosis." If you are interested in the topic or just like to read well-written prose, I recommend joining me in pre-ordering it.

[spuz]

For what reasons do you recommend it?

[shanedrgn]

On that train with you, counting down the days until March!

[dennis_jeeves2]

Turtles All the Way Down - second this book.

[netman21]

Largest in recorded history is a bit of hyperbole. In the 1800s something like 80% of all Americans had the TB bacillus and of those that came down with TB a huge percentage died.

[SecretDreams]

Hopefully we can course correct before we have to relearn lessons from the 1800s.

[cushychicken]

I agree, the emphasis probably should be on “recorded”, not “largest”.

[odyssey7]

That’s pretty much what I was looking for in clicking on the article, by what logic or rationale they made that statement.

[lolinder]

Yeah, the phrase they were looking for is "largest on record", or more precisely "largest in the CDC's records".

"Recorded history" has a very specific definition that places it in contrast with "prehistory": it's the time period in which we have written records of any sort, as opposed to the time period in which there is no surviving writing. That both phrases have "record" in them doesn't make them synonymous.

[boringg]

How are you going to get people to click on the article without hyperbole?

[levocardia]

How can this possibly be America's largest TB outbreak in history? TB was killing thousands of people per year in America in the 1800s.

[ceejayoz]

> She noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started monitoring and reporting tuberculosis cases in the U.S. in the 1950s.

[PhoenixReborn]

The crucial word in the headline is "recorded". I doubt that record-keeping in the 1800s was as comprehensive as it is today.

Additionally, from the article:

> the CDC started monitoring TB in the US in the 1950s.

[DFHippie]

If you read the article, it appears they've only been keeping records in Kansas since the 50's. And I think the headline is wrong: it's the biggest in Kansas's records. I could be mistaken about that.

[thrance]

The article states that they only started recording in the 1950s.

[WarOnPrivacy]

From the article:

    An tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas has become the largest in recorded history in the US....the CDC started monitoring TB in the US in the 1950s.

    "This is mainly due to the rapid number of cases in the short amount of time. There are a few other states that currently have large outbreaks that are also ongoing."

    People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it. It is treatable with antibiotics.

    State public health officials say there is "very low risk to the general public."

[ceejayoz]

> It is treatable with antibiotics.

Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculos...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tub...

> People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it.

https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-r...

"Analysis of data from 14 countries in Africa and Asia suggests that about two thirds of global TB transmission may be from asymptomatic TB (95% prediction interval: 27–92%)."

[3eb7988a1663]

I had a TB scare last year. Coworker was exposed to a confirmed case. Got tested, and we all turned up negative. I then asked if I could get a TB vaccine, but was told no, because it makes the TB visual assessment test useless. So, to aid future potential diagnoses, I need to be able to be infected by the genuine article.

[ksenzee]

That’s one reason the BCG vaccine isn’t given in the US, but it’s also because the data on whether it’s effective in adults is really inconsistent. It seems to vary based on geography (maybe distance from the equator? they’re not sure). If we were going to administer it routinely, it would be for infants, where the data is better.

[throwup238]

Can confirm. I got the vaccine in the Soviet Union as a kid and tested positive in the US for school admission and when volunteering with special kids. It’s a huge pain in the ass every time because doctors insist on a course of antibiotics that is particularly hard on the liver or kidneys so I have to spend significant time fighting them and getting an exception from administration.

[Havoc]

Is the CDC still a thing or did an executive order defund them too?

[malfist]

They were ordered to halt all publications, cancel trainings and not communicate with state health departments

[CHB0403085482]

To me, TB is ultimate test of character. Stopping TB means you care for your common man:

https://youtu.be/GFLb5h2O2Ww?t=75

[tim333]

I was shocked that that said 2bn people carry TB, though it seems from recent research the number is much lower https://www.iavi.org/iavi-report/upending-the-dogma-of-tb-la...

I'm surprised people put up with it when there's a vaccine.

[gigatexal]

If RFK jr becomes HHS lead and is able to push anti-vax policies this could only get worse.

[metadat]

Is there public reporting for actions taken by the current American Presidential Presidency?

It would be useful and highly informative to be able to visit a single page to see daily/quarterly/bi-annual/annual diffs of which efforts habe received signoff.

[anonfordays]

My friend's husband is a physician that works along the Mexican border and volunteers at migrant shelters. He said the amount of TB that comes through the border is shocking.

[NotYourLawyer]

Weird. Where did it come from? It’s basically unheard of in the US.

[ceejayoz]

We have roughly 10k cases a year. https://www.cdc.gov/tb-surveillance-report-2023/summary/nati...

[doodlebugging]

Here is an early article about the outbreak. [0]

[0] https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2023/09/05/...

Appears that it originated within a family group involving 6 kids and 7 adults.

[scripturial]

It’s still relatively common in some other countries. As usual, it’ll be connected to travel.

[llamaimperative]

This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which has been published weekly since 1960 (my understanding is this is without fail).

But unfortunately the current administration has decided an ideological purification is more important than keeping the American public apprised of threats to their health.

So it wasn't published last week, and probably won't be this week either. "Politics don't matter" though ;) Bummer!

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/

[giantg2]

Wouldn't this have showed up in the reports last year when the numbers were actively happening? There's been 1 case this year it says.

If the ideology was what you're saying, then wouldn't they want to spread the info and blame it on the "dirty illegals" or whatever?

[GeekyBear]

> This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The resurgence of TB has been the big story in infectious diseases for a while now.

Globally:

> The World Health Organization (WHO) today published a new report on tuberculosis revealing that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995. This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19.

https://www.who.int/news/item/29-10-2024-tuberculosis-resurg...

As well as in the US:

> After declining for three decades, tuberculosis (TB) rates in the U.S. have been increasing steadily since 2020, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a disturbing trend given that 1.5 million die from TB every year, making it the world’s most infectious killer.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/us-tuberc...

[gonzobonzo]

> This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which has been published weekly since 1960 (my understanding is this is without fail).

> But unfortunately the current administration has decided an ideological purification is more important than keeping the American public apprised of threats to their health.

Looking at the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, this doesn't actually appear to be true. Going by that link you can read past MMWR reports, and they aren't (from everything I can see) doing weekly tracking of outbreaks, but rather publishing various articles about diseases the way a science journal would. I couldn't find anything about the Kansas tuberculosis outbreak in the most recent reports, so I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see anything about it in the next few MMRW reports.

[avs733]

[flagged]

[johnnyanmac]

How is it that Trump is so timely at cutting medical resources right before the moment it is most needed? Or perhaps such outbreaks are more common than you'd expect and it's the equivalent of leaving a firewall down for a day?

And yeah, I'm aware a bigger factor in this freeze was hiding the very obvious Bird Flu pandemic. Can't hide the eggs getting more expensive though.

[vtashkov]

Last week it was still the job of the previous administration to publish it and it was the last administration which created the problem in the first place. Ideological purification was also what the previous administration has done quite a lot by hiring people based on their sexual preference, skin colour, gender and other irrelevant to the job characteristics.

[Waterluvian]

I wonder if we’d do better in discourse to stop pointing at an “administration.” It is a reflection of what a plurality, often majority, of people want.

[readthenotes1]

Interesting. So you were able to see these and reports last year and all the way through January 21st this year?

Because there's only been one reported car in 2025 in Kansas, I'd be surprised...

[roenxi]

> "Politics don't matter" though ;) Bummer!

1. Is there an argument here that the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report's unbroken publication record is so important it should switch votes?

2. They probably still filled the report in, so there is a chance it eventually gets published. No need to abandon hope yet.

[aaronbrethorst]

I have a lot of disagreements with HL Mencken, but I’ve found myself thinking about this quote of his a lot lately…for whatever reason.

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

[mjmsmith]

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people."

[madhadron]

The BCG vaccine is not protective against tuberculosis in adults. It helps prevent miliary tuberculosis in children.

I did my graduate work on tuberculosis. Those of us who weren't vaccinated because of our country of origin refused to be because the vaccine wouldn't help us and it changes testing for TB from a quick skin test to a lung x-ray.

It's not barbaric or corrupt or anti-vaccine in this case. It's details of this particular vaccine.

[chairmansteve]

Shhhh.... don't tell the CDC.

[LarsKrimi]

Fun historical incident, but the "Spanish Flu" was traced back to Fort Riley Kansas. I think some people highlight a specific pig farm even. Now, the CDC do not list any infections of H1N5 in Kansas yet, but... Worth looking out for in anticipation maybe?

Is there any reason why Kansas would be different than other states in particular?