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During 2017–2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified a total of 50 large tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks in 23 states, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC defines a large outbreak as 10 or more related cases within a 3-year period and notes that the large outbreaks accounted for 1,092 of the 61,993 cases reported during the study period. Cases attributed to large outbreaks were somewhat different from TB cases outside of the large outbreaks: Nearly 80% of the diagnosed patients were born in the United States, compared with 26% of cases recorded outside of the large outbreaks. Patients in large outbreaks also reported substance use, homelessness, and incarceration more often than other patients with TB.
People and places: The United States still has one of the lowest TB rates in the world, and some cases can result from latent TB infections acquired years earlier in countries where TB is more common. Read more about TB diagnosis in urgent care from the JUCM archive: Clinical Review of Current Best Practices for Tuberculosis Screening, Testing, and Treatment in the Urgent Care Setting