ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska is on track to repeat last year’s mark of the nation’s highest rate of tuberculosis infections, health officials said.

There have been 38 reported cases of tuberculosis in the state so far this year, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

A federal report released in March said Alaska had 58 documented cases of the disease in 2019.

COVID-19 has complicated the mission of eradicating tuberculosis in Alaska by reducing the public health resources that can be dedicated to fighting the illness caused by bacteria that attack the lungs, health officials said.

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