After 30 years of decline, tuberculosis is rising in the U.S. again. How did we get here?

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.

“Even the people who don’t die of the disease, they’re hospitalized [and] have a lot of long-term problems from having TB,” says Priya Shete, associate medical professor and co-director of the University of California, San Francisco Center for Tuberculosis. “If we allow continued increases in tuberculosis globally…over time that’s going to affect us as well.”

Nationwide, 2023 saw the highest number of cases reported in the last decade. Most of these recent cases are not instances of novel transmission, but sudden activation of latent infections that were undetected or improperly treated.

While TB impacts thousands nationally and millions around the world, “most people in the U.S. are not at risk of developing TB,” says Philip LoBue, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination.

Compared with high TB incidence countries like India, China, and the Philippines, the chance of infection in the U.S. is still one of the lowest in the world. But the recent trend reversal has raised questions—and some alarm bells—among infectious disease and public health experts. Here they offer insight into the causes and implications of the sudden upswing in cases.

More info: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/us-tuberculosis-tb-rates-rising