Behind the headlines

Infectious diseases rising in UK

Tuberculosis

The BBC reported recently that incidences of tuberculosis (TB) was increasing rapidly in the United Kingdom. A team from Imperial College London reviewed the number of infections present among new immigrants. All immigrants have a chest X-ray when they arrive, but researchers say that this screening method misses the majority of latent infections. The team says that new blood tests should be used instead to identify those people who have dormant infections which would prevent an inevitable spread of the disease, initiate treatment at an early stage and prevent it becoming a more serious illness. The Imperial research backs up the latest National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on TB screening. In the UK, around 9,000 cases of TB are reported each year, mainly in big cities like London. Dr John Moore-Gillon, vice-president of the British Lung Foundation and a TB specialist, said: “In the past 20 years, rates of TB have been falling in virtually every developed country, except the UK where they have been rising rapidly. Untreated TB leads to many unnecessary deaths and a great deal of suffering, and if this new approach to screening is adopted we may at last move towards reducing TB in this country.” The Department of Health (DOH) said: “We expect the local NHS to consider the best ways of tackling this issue in their area.”1