Tuberculosis: England Struggling To Kick Infectious Disease

After a sustained decline in cases, England’s progress against tuberculosis — a potentially dangerous infectious disease — seems to have levelled off, statistics show.

Experts warn “immediate action” needs to be taken for the country to meet international targets.

In 2021, public health officials were notified of 7.8 cases of TB per 100,000 members of the population. This was a slight improvement on 2020’s 8.4 per 100,000, but still a relatively modest drop in comparison to some previous years.

The World Health Organisation had previously tasked countries with reducing their rate of TB by 90% by 2035 as part of its “End TB” strategy. But England’s lack of progress means the country is no longer on track to meet this goal.

It needs to reduce its rate to just 1.05 notifications per 100,000 people to hit the target. But, according to the UK Health Security Agency, it’s on track to reach a significantly higher 5.1 per 100,000.

Dr Esther Robinson, who leads the UKHSA’s TB Unit, said in a statement: “Tuberculosis remains a risk to some of the most vulnerable people in our society and this data highlights that progress towards elimination has stalled.

“It is vital that we ensure that everyone has access to a timely diagnosis and effective treatment. This will also help us to get on course to eliminating TB in our communities through strengthening the prevention, detection and treatment of active TB in higher risk groups.”

In England, tuberculosis is more common in urban areas and among socially excluded groups like those experiencing homelessness. It also disproportionally affects members of certain ethnic minority groups and people who were born outside of the U.K.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield said it was “vital” to act now to “protect the progress that has been made towards eliminating tuberculosis in England over the last decade.”

She added: “We also know [that TB] disproportionately impacts more vulnerable people so it’s important to be vigilant and act so that anyone can access treatment when they need it.”

What is tuberculosis?

Although its relatively rare in the U.K., TB affects an estimated 10.6 million people worldwide every year. It is a bacterial infection spread from person to person through droplets released when an infected individual coughs and sneezes.

Tuberculosis can impact any part of the body, but it most commonly affects the lungs, causing symptoms like persistent coughing, according to England’s National Health Service.

Most healthy people’s bodies will be able to kill the bacteria that cause TB. In some cases, they may persist in a “latent” form that can become active in the future.

In other cases, infection will lead to disease symptoms that can become dangerous.

Treatment with the right antibiotics can usually cure TB, but drug-resistant forms can be harder to treat.

Worldwide, around 10.6 million people were affected by TB in 2021 — some 4.5% more than the year before. More prominent in the Global South, the regions hit hardest by TB include Africa, South America and south Asia.