MMWR Media Summary

Tuberculosis – United States, 2018

Preliminary 2018 tuberculosis surveillance data present the lowest number of cases reported on record and demonstrate the slowed progress toward TB elimination – which remains insufficient to eliminate TB in the United States this century. Data from CDC’s National TB Surveillance System show a total of 9,029 TB cases in 2018 (down from 9,094 in 2017), indicating slight declines in TB cases (-0.7 percent) and TB rates (-1.3 percent) compared to the previous year. This leaves the TB rate at 28 times higher than the goal for TB elimination. Achieving our national goal to eliminate TB will require expanding detection and treatment of TB disease and latent TB infection and maximizing all available tools such as short course regimens for latent TB infection treatment.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESExternal