Tuberculosis was supposed to be a disease the United States had largely moved past. For nearly three decades, U.S. case counts fell consistently, reaching an all-time low of 7,174 in 2020 — a figure driven partly by pandemic disruptions in health care utilization, but broadly reflecting long-term progress in TB control.
That trend has reversed. In 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 10,388 tuberculosis cases — the highest total since 2011 and a 14-year high that public health officials say reflects structural vulnerabilities that predated the pandemic and have been deepening since. Provisional 2025 data released March 23, 2026 shows a slight reduction to 10,260 cases — a 1% decline in cases and a 2% drop in the national rate to 3.0 per 100,000 — but the numbers remain sharply elevated compared to every year before the pandemic-era trough.
