A colorized X-ray of a patient's chest shows lesions caused by tuberculosis consisting of infected dead tissue. Treatment for the highly contagious disease requires consistent taking antibiotics for several months.After declining for three decades, tuberculosis rates in the U.S. have been increasing steadily since 2020, according to afrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a disturbing trend given that 1.
While TB impacts thousands nationally and millions around the world, "most people in the U.S. are not at risk of developing TB,” saysCompared 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.
Compared with previous caseloads, new TB patients are “often more sick at the time that they’re diagnosed,” Shete says. During the pandemic, some physicians may have misidentified or failed to take their symptoms seriously. “It can be kind of the slow burn of a disease where people start to lose weight, they start to feel crummy, they have a chronic cough, and maybe not seek care as quickly.
Of people born in the U.S., TB rates are highest among those “who have historically been minoritized or marginalized, socioeconomically or racially or ethnically,” Shete says, including Black and Latinx populations. According to the latest CDC report, Black Americans represented the largest number—33 percent—of U.S.-born TB cases, followed by Hispanic and white Americans.