BBC
News
 The
number of adults and children with the respiratory disease tuberculosis
(TB) in the UK has hit a 15-year high, according to the latest
figures.
Research
by the British Thoracic Society (BTS), published in the journal
Thorax, shows that TB cases have risen by nearly a fifth between
1987 and 1998.
London has
more cases of the disease than any other large European city,
with more than 4,000 diagnoses a year in the capital.
The BTS is
warning that more specialist health staff are urgently needed
to tackle the upsurge in the disease.
TB nurses
and health visitors play a vital role ensuring that patients with
TB take their prescribed drugs, and tracing family and friends
who may be at risk of infection.
However, the
BTS has found that only 14% of the UK's TB hotspot districts had
adequate numbers of specialist staff in 1998.
A recent study
has also shown that England and Wales have half as many lung physicians
per 100,000 people as the rest of Europe.
The BTS has
issued a revised code of practice designed to combat the disease.
It suggests:
- all immigrants
and longstay visitors to the UK from Asia, Africa and South
America should be screened for TB. In 1998, 56% of reported
TB cases were in people not born in the UK
- the procedure
should be performed at the port of entry or by local health
authorities
- screening
should consist of a health interview, with testing and treatment
where necessary
- all TB
cases must be notified to a designated Communicable Disease
Control officer
- BCG vaccination
should be offered to certain higher risk groups
Professor Peter Ormerod, Chairman of the British Thoracic Society
Joint TB committee, said TB infection rates in the UK were still
relatively low.
But he added: "TB is not a disease confined to the history
books - and there is no room for complacency.
"If we
want to maintain full control of the disease we must be vigilant
and fully implement these recommendations.
"Local
TB services and staff must be strengthened as a matter of urgency."
Costing millions
The BTS study
has been echoed in a new report published by the British Lung
Foundation (BLF).
The study,
Lung Report II, warns that complacency towards TB is costing the
NHS millions of pounds every year.
It is estimated
that treating a patient with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB)
costs the NHS an average of more than £60,000 per person.
This strain
of the disease is usually caused by unmonitored patients failing
to take their treatment correctly and developing resistance to
effective anti-TB drugs.
Dr John Moore-Gillon,
BLF spokesman, said: "In the 1970s we thought we were close
to wiping out TB but now there are more than 6,000 new cases each
year, with London having more cases than any other large European
city.
"And,
as it was in Victorian times, it is still those with the poorest
living conditions who are worst affected by this disease."
He added:
"But the real tragedy is that the development of new drugs
over the past 50 years could have led to the eradication of the
disease.
"World-wide
complacency about TB has led to an increasing burden on resources
in Britain and elsewhere and to a truly desperate situation in
many parts of the world."
The BLF is
calling for more investment, both in specialist TB staff and research
into combating drug resistant strains of the disease.
At present,
only 2% of government funding for all medical research is given
to lung disease.
In England
alone, respiratory disease accounts for up to 20% of all admissions
to NHS hospitals.
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