Tuberculosis, a serious lung infection also called “Victorian disease” that kills one in six people it infects and can cause victims to cough up blood, is on the rise in England.
Official data shows cases increased by 11 per cent at the end of last year, reaching 5,000, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report.
This means that around one in 25,000 people in England have the infection, although this figure rises to almost one in 5,000 people in London.
Four in five new cases were among people born outside the UK, the highest proportion since 2000.
People originating from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Romania were the largest non-British-born groups among tuberculosis (TB) patients.
Health chiefs are now urging people with possible TB symptoms not to ignore the signs, which include a continuous cough and can be easily confused with common winter infections such as a cold or flu.
His warning comes as separate NHS data shows a 350 per cent rise in flu cases in hospitals in England.
Dr Esther Robinson, head of UKHSA’s tuberculosis unit, urged people not to rule out possible symptoms of tuberculosis, especially if they had recently arrived in Britain.
“Tuberculosis is curable and preventable, but the disease remains a serious public health problem in England,” he said.
This map from UKHSA shows the rate of tuberculosis per 100,000 people in England. London has the highest rate of any area in the country.
“If you have moved to England from a country where tuberculosis is more common, please be aware of the symptoms of tuberculosis so that your GP can be tested and treated immediately.”
‘Not all persistent coughs, along with fever, are caused by the flu or COVID-19. A cough that usually contains mucus and lasts more than 3 weeks can be caused by a variety of other problems, including tuberculosis. Talk to your GP if you think you might be at risk.
Last year’s rise in tuberculosis marks a worrying decline in tuberculosis cases in Britain.
Cases peaked at more than 8,000 in 2011 but fell to just over 4,000 in 2020, the year of the Covid pandemic, but cases have increased year on year since.
Alarmingly, there has been an increase in the proportion of tuberculosis cases linked to strains resistant to the drugs normally used to treat it.
In 2022, approximately one in 100 cases of tuberculosis were due to drug-resistant strains. This figure rose to more than one in 50 last year.
Potential symptoms of tuberculosis include cough that lasts more than three weeks and produces blood, high temperature, night sweats, loss of appetite, and unexplained weight loss.
Although a TB test is required in the UK for immigrants from countries where the infection is more common, it can remain inactive, making it undetectable.
Tuberculosis is transmitted through the coughs and sneezes of infected people and most often emerges in the lungs, although it can reach other parts of the body. Microscopic view in the photo of the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the organism responsible for causing the disease.
Bacterial lung infection cases soared to a record 8.2 million in 2023, according to the World Health Organization. Here, a family member adjusts the oxygen mask of a tuberculosis patient at a tuberculosis hospital in Hyderabad, India, earlier this year.
Earlier this year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a global rise in tuberculosis with a record 8.2 million cases last year.
Tuberculosis is treated with antibiotics and as such is rarely fatal in countries such as Britain. However, globally it is estimated to kill one in six people it infects and deaths often occur years after infection.
Tuberculosis is transmitted through the coughs and sneezes of infected people and most often emerges in the lungs, although it can reach other parts of the body.
However, some studies have found that it can also be transmitted passively when infected people simply breathe, even if they do not show symptoms.
Early symptoms include cough, fever, night sweats, and weight loss.
But a severe tuberculosis infection can kill by destroying organs from the inside, causing them to bleed and fill with fluid.
Tuberculosis is particularly dangerous for immunocompromised people, such as those receiving chemotherapy, as well as those who are generally more vulnerable, such as young children and the elderly.
An injection called the BCG vaccine protects people from contracting tuberculosis, but it is only given to those who are most at risk of contracting the infection.