A CDC spokesperson identified two outbreaks in the last decade linked to more tuberculosis cases than the ongoing outbreak centered in Wyandotte County.

Kansas City-area residents may be alarmed to hear that Wyandotte County is at the epicenter of the largest recorded tuberculosis outbreak in U.S. history, according to state health officials. Fortunately, they say the health risk remains very low.

Kansas is currently experiencing a rare outbreak of tuberculosis (TB), the world’s deadliest infectious disease. TB is spread via germs in the air and usually affects the lungs but can also affect the brain, the kidneys or the spine.

A yearlong outbreak of tuberculosis in the Kansas City, Kansas area has taken local experts aback, even if it does not appear to be the largest outbreak of the disease in U.S. history as a state healt

We would expect to see a handful of cases every year,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Kansas Health System. But the high case counts in this outbreak were a “stark warning,