Active Tuberculosis Case Reported at Raleigh High School as U.S. Sees Rising Infections

An active case of tuberculosis was reported at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, prompting county health officials to begin identifying and notifying people who may have had close contact with the individual.

Wake County officials said the person with active TB was present at the school last week. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health is working with Wake County Schools to determine who may have been exposed; those identified as close contacts will be contacted directly and given instructions for testing, officials said. The school serves about 2,500 students in grades nine through 12. Names and ages of the patient have not been released.

A county spokesperson emailed CBS17, "We have been notified that an individual with active tuberculosis was present at Leesville [Road] High School last week. We are working with Wake County Public School System to identify anyone who may have been in close contact with this person. Those individuals will be contacted directly with instructions for tuberculosis testing." The notice sent to parents from the Wake County Health Department’s communicable disease division alerted families to "a situation affecting our school" but did not name TB in the public message; county officials confirmed TB was diagnosed on Friday.

Officials emphasized the risk to the broader public is low because tuberculosis generally requires prolonged, close contact to spread. Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth, told the Portland Press Herald that TB is not spread by casual contact such as handshakes or sharing towels and that "the vast majority of people do not need to worry about this." Public health teams advise monitoring for symptoms in those who may have been exposed and arranging testing and preventive treatment where appropriate.

The North Carolina report follows a recent cluster of cases in Maine. State health officials in Maine said three people in the Greater Portland area tested positive for TB; those cases were not linked to one another, suggesting different sources of infection, and contact tracing is underway. Maine has recorded 28 TB cases so far this year, compared with 39 for all of 2024, officials said.

National and international data indicate a rise in tuberculosis infections. Preliminary U.S. data for 2024 show 10,347 TB cases, an increase of about 8% from the previous year and the highest U.S. total since 2011. North Carolina reported 215 TB cases in 2023, a rise from 164 in 2022; preliminary state figures indicate about 250 cases in 2024 and 128 cases so far in 2025.

The World Health Organization classifies tuberculosis as the infectious disease that causes the most deaths worldwide, killing about 1.25 million people annually, primarily in low- and middle-income countries. In the United States, most TB cases are linked to infections acquired abroad, according to public health authorities.

Medical experts note that untreated active tuberculosis carries a high mortality risk, but the disease is preventable and treatable. Early symptoms can include a persistent cough, sometimes with blood, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, fever and night sweats. If untreated, the infection can cause severe lung damage and spread to other organs. Antibiotic regimens can cure most cases when properly followed. A vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is used in many countries but is not routinely given in the United States; it is more commonly administered to children in regions where TB is widespread and can complicate some tuberculosis testing.

Health departments are instructing any identified close contacts to undergo testing and, if indicated, preventive therapy. Public health officials continue to monitor case counts and urge that people who experience persistent respiratory symptoms seek medical evaluation and testing.

Further details about the Leesville Road High School case, including the identity and age of the person diagnosed and the specific locations within the school the person frequented, have not been released as contact tracing and public-health notifications proceed.