"recorded history" sounds like it's how you divide pre-colonial Americas from modern (15th Century CE onward) Americas. For example, many weather features have been recorded in the Americas since 17th century CE. Does "recorded history" refer to only "[this particular metric's] recorded history"?
I agree that it's not the best term, but I don't think its so disqualifying that it makes the claim untrue: it's misleading at worst, and that imprecision only kinda interacts with the underlying claim.
I guess the better phrasing would be "Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is largest since (org) has been collecting data", which honestly doesn't change the implications for me.
