The Madison County Health Department is working with the school district to assess possible exposure and limit transmission, according to officials. The infected student has not returned to campus, and families of students who may have been in close contact, including those in the same classrooms, have been notified. Tuberculosis tests will be offered on April 2 to students whose families want them tested, though no identifying details have been shared about the student. Grissom High School has a student population of about 2,000. It remains unclear how many students have been confirmed as exposed, what the current health status of the infected student is, or how many close contacts have been identified and tested.
Tuberculosis is considered the deadliest disease on the planet due to antibiotic resistance and increased spread in developing countries lacking modern antibiotics, health experts say. It infects a few thousand Americans every year and kills around 500, while worldwide, it kills 1.2 million people annually. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and spreads through airborne droplets, and it is primarily prevented with the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, though this is not routinely administered in the US except for children regularly exposed to active TB or healthcare workers in high-risk areas.
In the United States, tuberculosis cases have shown recent fluctuations. The US provisionally recorded 10,110 tuberculosis cases in 2025, down slightly from 10,330 in 2024, according to CDC data. The 2024 tuberculosis case tally of 10,330 was the highest since 2011, with cases on the rise in 80 percent of US states that year. The majority of 2025 tuberculosis cases in the US, totaling 7,858, were in non-US born citizens.