Tuberculosis cases touch 30-year high

Tuberculosis cases have hit their highest levels in the UK for 30 years, according to official figures published today.

Last year there were 9,040 TB cases in the UK, said the Health Protection Agency. A total of 8,621 people were infected in 2008. TB campaigners said the rise in the number of cases was shocking and called for more work to alert people, including doctors, to the possibility of infection.

Concern is also growing about the rise in drug-resistant cases spreading around the world. Cases where the disease does not respond to the commonly used antibiotics take longer than the usual six months to treat and require more expensive drugs.

The number of drug-resistant infections has nearly doubled in a decade from 206 in 2000 to 389 in 2009. Cases resistant to more than one antibiotic (multi-drug resistant) have gone up from 28 in 2000 to 58 in 2009. Multi-drug resistant TB can require treatment lasting as long as 18 months.

Although it can be cured, TB can also kill. The Office for National Statistics said it was an underlying cause in 334 deaths in 2008.

Life threatening

"We are concerned to see cases of TB at their highest levels since the 1970s," said Dr Ebrahim Abu Bakar, head of TB surveillance at the HPA. "TB is a preventable and treatable condition but, if left untreated, can be life threatening.

"The key to reducing levels of TB is early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Efforts to improve early diagnosis and control the spread of infection must remain a priority especially in parts of the country with the highest rates of TB."

Cases are unevenly spread around the country. There are more cases in London than anywhere else (3,440 cases last year), followed by the West Midlands (1,018). These areas have higher numbers of people from ethnic minorities, who may have come from countries where the disease is endemic. About a third of the world's population has latent TB, which can remain undetected and harmless for years.

Other people including the homeless and people with HIV are vulnerable to TB. The disease spreads through close contact and is therefore more is contagious in urban areas where people live closer to each other.

Mike Mandelbaum, chief executive of TB Alert, said the surge was shocking. "It's been rising for over 20 years now and no sign that it is stopping. It is being addressed as a narrow clinical issue and the public health aspects are not being tackled."