WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Since the beginning of this year, Kansas health officials have identified 67 tuberculosis cases in the northeastern part of Kansas, making it the largest documented tuberculosis outbreak in the U.S. history.
Of the total cases, 60 active cases were reported in Wyandotte County and 7 in Johnson County, as per the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Despite the significant number of cases, the officials assured that the risk of transmission among general public is very low. Moreover, the department is actively working to prevent the spread of the disease and provide appropriate treatment to the affected individuals.
Tuberculosis, caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis, spreads through droplets of a patient's sneeze or cough, and spreads with prolonged exposure especially by living in a crowded or less ventilated room.
The disease develops slowly in two stages. In the initial stage, the patient suffers from low fever, cough, and fatigue. Later in the latent stage, the bacteria spread to lungs and other parts of the body, developing symptoms like fever, chills, cough, coughing up blood, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, and chest pain.
'Bacille Calmette-Guerin or BCG is a vaccine for TB disease. The vaccine is not generally used in the United States. It is given to infants and small children in countries where TB is common. It protects children from getting severe forms of active TB disease, such as TB meningitis,' according to a post by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
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