Tuberculosis cases are on the rise in Maine and across the country, although there are no current outbreaks in the state, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lindsay Hammes, spokesperson for the Maine CDC, said the agency is “aware of three active TB cases with links to the Greater Portland area and is in the midst of conducting our typical response.” She said that, so far, the cases are not genetically linked, meaning they were not transmitted from one person to another.
Hammes said the CDC is also identifying people who were in close contact with the three people who had contracted TB and screening them if needed.
City and state officials said rumors of an outbreak at the Portland shelter for asylum seekers are untrue.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection of the lungs that can spread person to person, but it’s far less contagious than other diseases like influenza and COVID-19. TB can be treated with a course of antibiotics.
Cases have been increasing in recent years in Maine and across the nation. There had been 28 cases in the state so far this year through the end of July, according to the Maine CDC. The state had 26 TB cases for all of 2023 and 39 in 2024.
Nationally, tuberculosis cases have risen since 2021, with 10,347 cases reported in 2024, up from 9,622 in 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has attributed the rise to increases in international travel, migration and disruptions in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic leading to delayed diagnosis and care.
While mortality rates are low and falling in the U.S., it’s still a deadly disease in developing countries.
Globally, 10.8 million people were infected with TB in 2023 and 1.25 million people died, according to the World Health Organization. That was the most recent year statistics were available from the organization.
The disease can be spread when a person is near an infected person who has active tuberculosis and breathes the bacteria into their lungs. TB is not spread by sharing utensils, clothing or food, and is not sexually transmitted or through blood, according to the U.S. CDC.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth, said that while TB is contagious, people need to be in “close, prolonged contact” with someone with an active case to be at risk of becoming infected.
“The vast majority of people do not need to worry about this,” Mills said. “It’s not spread through casual contact like shaking hands or sharing a towel. It’s much less contagious than influenza or COVID-19.”
People living in crowded places, like homeless shelters, jails and prisons, are more at risk, Mills said.
Symptoms of tuberculosis can include a cough that lasts more than three weeks, coughing up blood or phlegm, unexplained weight loss, night sweats and fatigue.
There is a TB vaccine, although the vaccine is not usually given in the U.S. because of the low risk of contracting the disease in the country, the high number of false positive tests after administering the vaccine and because the vaccine is not as effective in adults when compared to children, according to the U.S. CDC.
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