Tuberculosis Outbreaks in the US

The latest large US outbreaks hit Kansas City, Kansas, in 2024 and 2025, and a San Francisco school from late 2025. Kansas declared its outbreak over on November 14, 2025, while San Francisco was still reporting cases in March 2026. Kansas recorded no new active case after April 2025¹.

The wider facts and figures put these outbreaks in context. The page on tuberculosis facts and statistics gathers the national numbers.

A tuberculosis outbreak is a group of active cases linked by recent spread of the same germ from person to person. CDC guidance from 2024 calls two or more cases with matching genotypes a cluster, and one of concern might represent an outbreak. Genotyping is a lab method that reads the genetic material of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and its patterns tell one strain from another⁶. Paired with interviews, it shows who shares one chain of recent spread and whether illness stems from old or new infection⁶. Clusters of concern include locally new or unusual strains, growing clusters, drug resistance and cases at high risk of poor outcomes⁷.

The Kansas tuberculosis outbreak was a cluster of cases in the Kansas City, Kansas, area that the state tracked from January 2024. By its end it counted 68 active cases and 91 latent infections treated, with more than 650 people evaluated. As of Jan 31, 2025, KDHE counted 67 active cases, 60 in Wyandotte County and 7 in Johnson County². It had 79 latent infections at that point². Two deaths were linked to the outbreak, and no drug-resistant TB was found². For comparison, Kansas counted 52 active cases statewide in 2022 and 46 in 2023². Its statewide count rose to 116 in 2024, then fell to 63 in 2025, by CDC provisional data from 2026⁴. Anyone named as a contact can read what to do when exposed to tuberculosis.

The San Francisco tuberculosis outbreak is centered on Archbishop Riordan High School, where the first active case was found in November 2025. By March 6, 2026, the city reported 4 confirmed and 3 suspected active cases. Of 1,359 people tested, 207 had confirmed latent TB. The 1,359 people tested were students and staff, and 227 of them had a positive test³. The health department rated the risk to the general public as low³. The page on latent TB infection explains what those 207 results mean.

No, there is no national tuberculosis outbreak in the US, but local outbreaks keep occurring. US cases rose each year from 2021 to 2024, then fell 1% in 2025, with 26 states and DC reporting decreases. CDC provisional data from 2026 counted 10,260 cases in 2025, or 3.0 per 100,000 people, as of Feb 12, 2026⁴. The 2024 total was 10,388 cases, up 7.9% on 2023 and the fourth rise in a row⁵. Before that, counts had fallen for nearly three decades and dropped sharply in 2020⁴. The first nationwide report, for 1953, counted 84,304 cases⁹. A resurgence followed in the early 1990s, before the long decline⁹. In 2025, 77% of cases were in people born outside the US⁴. The rate was 0.8 per 100,000 in US-born people and 15.4 in people born elsewhere⁴. Year-by-year counts sit on the page about tuberculosis cases in the US.

California, Texas, New York and Florida report the most tuberculosis cases in the US. California counted the most, 2,150 cases in 2025, at 5.5 for every 100,000 residents.

Illinois (384), New Jersey (359) and Georgia (306) came next in 2025⁴. These counts are one answer to the question is tuberculosis still around in the US.

Tuberculosis outbreaks start when one person with active lung TB spreads it to the people they spend time with. A 2025 CDC report names recovery from pandemic disruptions, more travel and migration, and state outbreaks as likely drivers of rising cases. The germs travel through the air when someone with active TB of the lungs or throat coughs, speaks or sings⁸. They can linger in the air for several hours, and spread is likelier indoors or where air moves poorly⁸. Disease outside the lungs, in the kidney or spine for example, is usually not contagious⁸. Some people fall ill within weeks of infection, and those infected recently face a higher risk⁸. The page asking is tuberculosis contagious covers which forms of the disease spread.

Health departments trace tuberculosis outbreaks by finding, testing and treating the contacts of each person with active disease. Lab genotyping then shows which cases share one strain, so investigators can map a single chain of spread. Contacts include household members, friends, coworkers and classmates, according to CDC exposure guidance from 2024. Contacts are not told the patient name, and it is not passed to law enforcement or immigration officials. People who were exposed cannot spread TB right away. CDC contact guidelines from 2005 repeat the test 8 to 10 weeks after exposure ends, since a negative test sooner is unreliable. The same 2005 CDC guidelines recommend a full medical evaluation, with a chest X-ray, for any exposed child under 5. On average, health departments list 10 contacts for each person with infectious TB, CDC guidelines from 2005 note. Of those contacts, 20% to 30% have latent TB infection and 1% have TB disease, by the same 2005 guidelines. CDC advised in 2024 that programs review clusters of concern at least quarterly⁷. Their investigations generally look back over the previous 2 to 3 years⁷. CDC guidance from 2024 says it alerts a state program when a cluster meets its criteria and can send surge capacity⁷.

You can find reliable tuberculosis news from state and city health departments and in the 2025 reports of CDC and WHO. WHO published its latest Global Tuberculosis Report in November 2025, and CDC published provisional 2025 US data in March 2026. The WHO fact sheet of 2026 counts 10.7 million people who fell ill with TB in 2024 and 1.23 million deaths. From 2023 to 2024, the rate of people falling ill dropped nearly 2%, and deaths fell 3%, WHO reported in 2025. Just 30 countries hold 87% of all cases, by the same WHO release from 2025. Global numbers appear on the page about tuberculosis worldwide.

These short answers cover the long history of the disease.