November 7, 2025
An outbreak of active infectious tuberculosis (TB) was declared in Edmonton's inner-city vulnerable populations who are experiencing houselessness in September 2025 following a small number of confirmed cases of TB that have the same strain, suggesting local transmission within that population is occurring.
Primary Care Alberta's (PCA's) TB program in collaboration with the Edmonton Zone Medical Officers of Health are responding to this outbreak by connecting with shelters, inner-city agencies, and local health care providers to coordinate contact tracing and case finding.
Work is underway to identify and manage close contacts within the Edmonton inner-city population, and workers in organizations who are affected.
Case finding is a secondary, and equally important undertaking. In patients who are experiencing houselessness, and present with a cough for >2 weeks, it is important that healthcare providers test for active TB with both a plain chest radiograph and three sputum samples for mycobacteria (AFB, TB).
TB transmission requires you to spend several hours in the same room as someone with TB to be considered exposed.
Primary Care Alberta (PCA) is working with facilities to ensure appropriate infection prevention protocols are in place.
Anyone with questions or concerns about the outbreak is encouraged to reach out Edmonton Zone Medical Officers of Health at MOH.Edmonton@ahs.ca.
Health care providers with clinical questions regarding management of TB contacts or suspect TB cases can contact the Edmonton TB clinic at 780-407-4550.
