A yearlong tuberculosis outbreak in the Kansas City metropolitan area has sparked concern as cases of the highly contagious disease exceed the national level in a majority of states. To be clear, public health officials say the threat to the general public of sometimes fatal tuberculosis remains low,

Kansas has experienced a significant outbreak of tuberculosis with 67 active infections and even more latent cases of the disease.

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 health official claimed last week.