Dear Colleague Letters

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Dear Colleagues,

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released provisional 2018 surveillance data on reported tuberculosis (TB) cases in the United States. The full report, entitled Reported Tuberculosis in the United States, 2018, is now available online.

Key findings:

TB Cases Infographic
  • There were 9,025 TB cases reported in the United States in 2018, which represents a 0.7% decrease from 2017.
  • The overall annual TB incidence decreased to 2.8 cases per 100,000.
  • People born outside of the United States continue to be disproportionately affected, largely because they have developed TB disease from longstanding latent TB infection that occurred in their country of origin.
  • Nationally, 12.6% of U.S. TB cases with genotype data are attributed to recent transmission.

CDC has created a slide set, infographicpdf icon, and web graphics with highlights from the surveillance report to support TB education and outreach to clinicians, health care agencies, and community organizations.  TB control programs can also use a customizable infographic template to highlight state and local surveillance data.

This 2018 edition of Reported Tuberculosis in the United States marks a milestone as the first TB surveillance report to be published exclusively online, as part of CDC’s Digital First Initiative to help audiences discover, view, and share content more easily.

The United States continues to have one of the lowest TB case rates in the world, and the 2018 case count represents the lowest number of TB cases on record.  Still, too many people suffer from TB disease and our progress is too slow to eliminate TB in this century. Ending TB will require a dual approach of maintaining and strengthening current TB control priorities, while increasing efforts to identify and treat latent TB infection in high-risk populations.

To learn more, visit the CDC TB website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for your work and commitment to eliminate TB.

Sincerely,

/Philip LoBue/

Philip LoBue, MD, FACP, FCCP
Director, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/tb

Page last reviewed: October 2, 2019
Content source: Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention