{"id":72895,"date":"2026-02-05T12:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=72895"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:32:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:32:31","slug":"tuberculosis-worlds-deadliest-infectious-disease-is-still-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/tuberculosis-worlds-deadliest-infectious-disease-is-still-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuberculosis cases jumped more than 30% in Colorado in 2025. Why is tuberculosis so dangerous, and what are the symptoms?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><figure id=\"attachment_72899\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-72899\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-72899 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/11\/21155903\/Getty-TB-cough-web.webp\" alt=\"A stubborn cough can be a sign of tuberculosis or TB. Tuberculosis is still around, and cases have been on the rise in recent years. In Colorado, health officials saw a 32% jump in cases from 2024 to 2025. Photo: Getty Images.\" width=\"560\" height=\"342\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-72899\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stubborn cough can be a sign of tuberculosis or TB. Tuberculosis is still around, and cases have been on the rise in recent years. In Colorado, health officials saw a 32% jump in cases from 2024 to 2025. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You may assume that either the flu or COVID-19 is the world\u2019s deadliest infectious disease, but it\u2019s actually tuberculosis or TB, and Colorado health officials saw a 32% increase in TB cases in 2025 compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, there were 103 confirmed cases of TB in Colorado, according to health experts at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).<\/p>\n<p>That was a signficiant increase from 2024 when TB officials logged 78 cases of TB.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado health officials say cases of TB had been declining steadily for 10 years, but began increasing in 2023.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Here are some key facts about TB:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>TB kills more than 4,300 people <strong>each day<\/strong> around the globe.<\/li>\n<li>More than 10 million people around the world develop TB every year.<\/li>\n<li>In Colorado, <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/e\/2PACX-1vSXPfKOXdf0V37L61b-UNaXFcSbsvRxGVmmFIP8QwCGCumc9S5zLUC04CLKbGxvDnA1XUepUXBu-Bz8\/pub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cases were declining<\/a> in recent years with 52 confirmed cases in 2020, 58 in 2021 and 57 in 2022, according to health experts at CDPHE.<\/li>\n<li>But in 2023, the number of confirmed TB cases spiked to 89, a sharp increase from the year before \u2014 and at least two people died from TB in Colorado in 2023.<\/li>\n<li><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">In 2024, state health officials logged 78 cases of TB. That marked a slight decrease from the recent peak in 2023.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>But the number of TB cases jumped again in 2025 with 103 confirmed cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To learn more about TB, we consulted with Dr. Michelle Barron, UCHealth\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/provider\/michelle-barron-md\/\">senior medical director of infection prevention and control<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/diseases-conditions\/tuberculosis\/\">TB is challenging to diagnose<\/a> because the most common symptom parallels that of many other illnesses: a stubborn cough. Especially during the fall and winter \u2014 when multiple respiratory illnesses like flu, RSV and COVID-19 are spreading \u2014 TB can fly under the radar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTB investigations require a lot of detective work,\u201d said Barron, who is also <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/som.cuanschutz.edu\/Profiles\/Faculty\/Profile\/8603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a professor<\/a> at the <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/medschool.cuanschutz.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Colorado School of Medicine<\/a> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/locations\/uchealth-at-university-of-colorado-anschutz-medical-campus\/\">Anschutz campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople have this smoker\u2019s cough that can come from a lot of causes, and TB can get missed when people come to an ER or urgent care,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are some of the biggest challenges with TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Barron said TB is especially challenging to detect and cure for the following reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many infected patients don\u2019t know they have it.<\/li>\n<li>Some people can have a highly infectious form of TB and become \u201csuper spreaders,\u201d who unknowingly give the disease to many others.<\/li>\n<li>Treatments for TB take a long time and can be difficult for some people to access.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71572\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-71572\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/08\/31123629\/Dr.-Barron-seated-portrait-tiny.webp\" alt=\"Dr. Michelle Barron is one of the top infectious disease experts in the Rocky Mountain Region. Tuberculosis is still around and cases are on the rise in Colorado. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.\" width=\"640\" height=\"432\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Michelle Barron is one of the top infectious disease experts in the Rocky Mountain Region. She said Coloradans should be aware that tuberculosis is still around, and cases are on the rise. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>What are the common symptoms for TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The most common symptoms of TB are a persistent cough, low-grade fevers and night sweats. Sometimes, people cough up blood and unintentionally lose weight. When experts view a patient\u2019s chest X-rays, they sometimes see a telltale sign of TB called a cavitary lesion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks like a walled-off area of your lungs,\u201d Barron said. \u201cIt\u2019s basically your immune system trying to protect your lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Is TB curable?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cYes. This is a curable disease. But it requires very long treatments,\u201d Barron said. \u201cWe give people antibiotics. There\u2019s a cocktail (of medications) that you have to take. You have to be treated for six months to a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why is TB so deadly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cTB can be deadly because many people don\u2019t have access to testing and treatment,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>Or, even if they can get medications, they might not finish taking them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine having to take meds for nine months. That\u2019s hard. There also can be stigma with this disease. Some people who think they might have TB don\u2019t want to come forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why are TB cases on the rise?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A detailed <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1qExnvKMMfzSbDS4dhDPwniUTA82EtdBo\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2023 report about TB<\/a> from health experts at CDPHE found that TB cases have been on the rise due to earlier detection of the illness along with increased immigration from countries where TB is common.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Who is at the greatest risk for getting TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">TB cases in Colorado have hit people from ethnic and racial minority groups the hardest. Here&#8217;s a snapshot from the 2023 CDPHE report about those who are at greatest risk for getting TB:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\">Among new patients with TB, 88% identified themselves as members of an ethnic or racial minority group. TB cases strike members of minority groups at disproportionate rates. In Colorado, about 35% of people identify themselves as members of racial or ethnic minority groups.<\/li>\n<li>About 40% of those with confirmed TB cases in 2023 were Hispanic, and 21% were Asian; another 11% were white and 10% were Black.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\">A diabetes diagnosis is the strongest medical risk factor for developing TB. Among new TB patients in 2023, 19% had diabetes.<\/li>\n<li>Another risk factor was having been born in one of the <span class=\"s2\" style=\"font-family: var(--font__400);\">30 countries with the highest rates of TB infections.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>People who are homeless also are at risk for getting TB.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Barron encouraged people who come from countries where TB is common to be aware of the symptoms and to get tested if they are concerned that they might have been exposed to TB.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re from a country where rates of tuberculosis in the community are high, you should be aware of potential exposures,&#8221; Barron said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Where is TB most common around the world?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>TB is endemic in most countries around the globe. It\u2019s most common in parts of Mexico, South America, Africa, East Asia, Russia and India, Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people think of deadly diseases, they think of COVID-19, malaria, HIV and diarrheal diseases,\u201d Barron said. \u201cMany are surprised to find that TB kills the highest number of people in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barron said that doctors in the United States and Europe rarely see patients who test positive for TB. People in the U.S. who have a higher risk for getting TB are those who have lived or traveled to areas with higher rates of TB, people who live in crowded settings like jails or prisons and those who are experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>Health care workers also can be exposed more frequently than others and therefore are tested frequently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery health care worker gets tested when they start a job. If you work in the emergency department or you\u2019re a pulmonologist or respiratory therapist, and your potential exposure is higher, you get tested more often, Barron said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>At what age is TB typical? Are older people and young children at greater risk if they get TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Older people and the very young are definitely more susceptible to getting very sick from TB,&#8221; Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>The CDPHE study found that people with TB ranged in age from infants to an 82-year-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The largest number of cases surfaced among people ages 25 to 44.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials saying TB cases among children are especially concerning since they indicate ongoing transmission in the community.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How does TB kill people?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWithout treatment, it destroys your lungs, and you waste away. It produces chemicals in your body that suppress your appetite. You stop eating, and your body stops functioning,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>TB is hard to detect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re almost looking for needles in a haystack,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>She said it\u2019s vital for people to know that TB cases are on the rise even in places where few people usually see this infectious disease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to alarm anyone, but we want to raise awareness,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do public health experts respond when a person tests positive for TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The first step is to report the positive TB test to county and state public health authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Then the detective work begins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting,\u201d said Barron. \u201cWe do contact tracing and test everyone in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If others who have been in tight quarters with the person who has TB also test positive, then medical experts know the person has a highly infectious case of TB, and they need to keep moving out in concentric circles, finding and testing others who may have been infected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a case where the person was so infectious that more than half of the family and coworkers also tested positive,\u201d Barron said. \u201cSometimes we can have super spreaders. Other times, a person won\u2019t transmit it to the people in their home. There\u2019s a lot of variability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finding the source of an outbreak can be challenging. Barron recalled a large TB outbreak years ago in Michigan. Public health experts searched and searched for the common vector among patients. It turned out to be an underground poker ring that was operating out of a junkyard.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Is there a vaccine to prevent TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s a vaccine to prevent TB. But Barron said it does not work well.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How does TB spread?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s airborne, and it can be very infectious. What does that mean? If I cough, and I have tuberculosis, the microbacteria can hang out in the air. I might leave the room, but you could come in, and if you inhale the bacteria, it can get in your lungs. Your body can wall it off. It doesn\u2019t kill you. It just puts the TB bacteria in jail,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA person who has been exposed might have latent TB,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>That means the person might test positive, but would not have any active symptoms.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do you get tested for TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Doctors use blood tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re not perfect, but they\u2019re pretty good,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a person coughs, you get sputum, and we can detect the mycobacterium,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The bacteria that causes TB are very distinctive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey look like little, pinkish red rods, so they\u2019re called red snappers. It doesn\u2019t always show up, but if the smear is positive, you can visualize them under a microscope,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>Learn <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.colorado.gov\/tb-public\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how to get tested<\/a> for TB in Colorado.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What happens if you\u2019ve been exposed to TB, but you don\u2019t receive treatment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIf a case of TB is not treated, the person can go on to develop a full-blown infection,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How worried should the average person be about getting TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Most people in the U.S. don\u2019t need to worry about TB. But, a person\u2019s risk depends on their job, travel history and exposures to others who might have TB.<\/p>\n<p>If a person was born elsewhere and lived in a place where TB was quite common, it\u2019s possible that they could have picked up TB in the past. If a person recently spent considerable time in an area where TB is endemic, they, too, could have been exposed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have a cough that won\u2019t go away, you might get diagnosed with asthma or COPD (chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease) but you could potentially also have TB,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRisk factors include exposure to someone who has tested positive, travel to a country where TB is endemic, experiencing homelessness and working in or spending time in a jail or prison,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why are cases increasing in Colorado?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Public health experts aren\u2019t sure why cases of TB are increasing in Colorado. It\u2019s possible that, as with other illnesses, the pandemic caused fewer people to go to the doctor, and fewer people who had TB received a diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>Barron said people with TB also may not realize they have it since the primary symptom \u2014 a chronic cough \u2014 is so similar to other infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What should I do if I suspect I might have been exposed to TB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Contact your doctor and get tested right away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you were exposed and you have a latent case, we can give you medications for a couple of months that eradicate it. Then you don\u2019t have to worry about it coming back later in life,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody who had a persistent cough that hasn\u2019t gone away for months and who has experienced weight loss or night sweats should be tested. It doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll have TB, but it\u2019s worth getting tested. \u201cTB is rare, but it\u2019s progressive and treatable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barron said some people who have served in the military can be vulnerable. Regular testing is part of military service, but people can get TB once they are civilians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf people were stationed in places where TB is endemic, they can get it,\u201d Barron said. \u201cIf anyone is concerned, they should get a blood test.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>So, I\u2019ve heard of TB in the lungs. Can people also get a tuberculosis infection elsewhere in the body?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cYes. We worry about the lungs, but you can have it anywhere. I had a patient who originally was from Africa and was immunosuppressed and kept having fevers,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>It turned out that the patient had a TB infection in the ankle. TB can also show up as a swollen lymph node, a mass in the belly or ovary and can manifest in the spine (which is also known as Pott\u2019s disease).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the wildest disease I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Barron said<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I understand that TB played a big role in Colorado\u2019s history. Please tell me more about &#8216;cure chasers&#8217; who came to Colorado and helped launch the state\u2019s tourism industry.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>TB brought more people to Colorado than gold and silver mining.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> and 19<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, TB was known as \u201cthe great white plague\u201d or \u201cconsumption\u201d and was the leading cause of death in the United States and Europe at that time.<\/p>\n<p>There were no known\u00a0cures for the illness, but a diet of fresh air, rest and nutritious food were thought to be therapeutic.<\/p>\n<p>Promoters in Colorado began to advertise the state\u2019s crisp, dry air. Colorado Springs sold itself as the \u201cSwitzerland of the Rockies,\u201d and the state soon filled up with wheezing TB patients.<\/p>\n<p>In 1899, a special hospital opened to care for TB patients. It was then known as the National Jewish Hospital for the Treatment of Consumptives. Other sanatoriums and treatment centers soon followed.<\/p>\n<p>Medical providers back then had no treatments that actually worked, but they tried all sorts of crazy notions, including having people live in close proximity to cows <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.historycolorado.org\/2005\/09\/01\/got-preservation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to inhale their supposedly curative fumes and drink fresh cow\u2019s milk<\/a> in Denver\u2019s Historic Montclair neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Living at high altitude was also thought to be healthy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTB grows well in high-oxygen concentration environments. So patients thought it would be helpful to come to Colorado and starve their lungs of oxygen,\u201d Barron said. \u201cThey had the idea that being in the mountains could cure you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the mountains did not cure TB, they did dazzle people. And the state\u2019s highly successful tourism industry was born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may assume that either the flu or COVID-19 is the world\u2019s deadliest infectious disease, but it\u2019s actually tuberculosis or TB, and Colorado health officials saw a 32% increase in TB cases in 2025 compared with the previous year. In 2025, there were 103 confirmed cases of TB in Colorado, according to health experts at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2123,"featured_media":88662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[162],"class_list":["post-72895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-infectious-diseases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease, is still around - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cases of Tuberculosis or TB jumped more than 30% in Colorado in 2025. 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