Dear Colleague Letters
CDC Releases “Reported Tuberculosis in the United States, 2022”
November 15, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier this year, CDC published provisional tuberculosis (TB) data in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The full report, Reported Tuberculosis in the United States, 2022, is now available exclusively online.
The report describes information on TB disease reported to the CDC since 1993. This year’s report emphasizes TB disease cases counted by reporting areas in 2022 and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB disease surveillance.
Key Highlights:
- The reported number of TB cases in the United States increased from 7,870 TB cases in 2021 to 8,331 TB cases in 2022, a 5.9% increase.
- The national TB incidence rate increased from 2.4 cases per 100,000 persons in 2021 to 2.5 cases per 100,000 persons in 2022. Eight states reported incidence rates higher than the national incidence rate.
- As in past years, cases of TB disease were not evenly distributed across the United States. Four states account for half of all reported U.S. TB cases: California, Texas, New York (including New York City), and Florida.
- Consistent with previous years, TB disease disproportionately affected people from racial and ethnic minority groups and non-U.S.–born persons in the United States.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, TB case counts and incidence rates had been steadily decreasing in the United States since 1992. However, TB case counts and incidence rates declined sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, reported TB cases and incidence rates in the United States increased for the second year in a row, but remained lower than levels reported prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of reported TB cases and incidence rates appears to be gradually returning to prepandemic levels but concerns about pandemic-related disruptions to public health persist.
Ending TB will require a dual approach of maintaining and strengthening efforts to diagnose and treat TB disease and latent TB infection, especially in populations at increased risk for TB disease.
CDC created a slide set and infographic to highlight findings from the 2022 surveillance report.
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of all state and local health departments throughout the United States whose staff collected and reported the information used in the 2022 surveillance report.
Thank you for your work and commitment to eliminate TB in the United States.
Sincerely,
Philip LoBue, MD, FACP, FCCP
Director
Division of Tuberculosis Elimination
National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention