A public health emergency has been declared in southern California after one person died and nine others were hospitalised due to a tuberculosis outbreak.

The outbreak was localised to a single-room occupancy hotel in Long Beach, which health officials declined to identify.

As of Monday, a total of 14 cases had been identified. The health department’s tuberculosis control staff, however, has identified an additional 170 people who have likely been exposed.

Those individuals are in the process or will be screened in one of several ways, including chest x-rays, blood and skin tests and symptom review, according to health officials.

City Health Officer Doctor Anissa Davis on Thursday declared a local public health emergency in a bid to "strengthen the city's preparedness and ability to respond" to the localised outbreak.

Officials insist the risk of exposure to the general public is "low", adding that the outbreak is restricted to a "distinct population" of people with "significant barriers to care, including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance abuse and serious medical comorbidities".

Long Beach health officials confirmed the hotel in question was not in quarantine and was still open.

Public Health officials were unable to confirm the date of the first recorded case but it comes amid an uptick in cases across the state.

The number of cases in 2023 shot up by 15 percent in California compared with the previous year, the state Department of Public Health said in March.

The disease, which is fully preventable and treatable, kills on average at least 1.3 million people every year, more than any other infectious disease.

Symptoms include a cough that lasts more than three weeks, chest pain, weight loss, extreme tiredness, loss of appetite, a high temperature, swollen glands, headaches and body aches and pains.

Most tuberculosis infections are airborne. You can contract it from bacteria coughed up by another person with the infection.

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TB is a preventable disease, thanks to effective vaccines, testing and treatments.

And contracting the disease could be about to get a lot harder: a new blood test that identifies millions of people who unknowingly spread tuberculosis could be developed soon, scientists say.

Why is TB spreading?

The reasons for the current rise in TB cases are multi-faceted. TB is a social disease so acute economic disparities are partly driving its resurgence.

The interruption of monitoring, prevention and treatment efforts during the Covid pandemic also explains the sharp rise in TB cases.