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Tuberculosis is rising in the U.S. again. How did we get here?

Since the pandemic’s explosion in 2020, resource diversion to COVID tracking and treatment may have allowed TB to spread unchecked.

"Even the people who don't die of the disease, they're hospitalized [and] have a lot of long-term problems from having TB,” says Priya Shete, associate medical professor and co-director of the University of California, San Francisco Center for Tuberculosis. LoBue agrees, citing “the similarity of pulmonary TB disease and COVID-19 symptoms” and disrupted health care access during the pandemic as key factors in the initial drop, then rise, in cases. People experiencing food insecurity, poor access to basic health services, and inadequate or crowded living conditions are at higher risk of infection and often lack the resources for testing or treatment.

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