Washington - Saba:
The United States has witnessed a resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), a respiratory disease often accompanied by severe coughing, since January 2024.
The outbreak has been concentrated in Kansas City and two nearby counties, continuing through early March 2025.
According to ScienceAlert, 147 people have been reported as infected, with 67 showing symptoms of the disease, while 80 others carry the infection asymptomatically, a condition known as "latent infection."
TB is one of the leading infectious causes of death worldwide, ranking second after COVID-19 in the first three years of the pandemic. The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the disease, which has affected humans for thousands of years, with evidence of its existence found in ancient remains from around 9,000 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The disease was first documented between 410-400 BC, when the Greek physician Hippocrates referred to it as "Phthisis," meaning "gradual wasting," a term describing the severe weakness and emaciation it causes. TB was also known as "consumption" or the "white plague" due to its symptoms and the resulting death. If left untreated, active TB can be fatal, with a death rate of 50%, though it drops to 12% with treatment.
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