Tuberculosis cases on the rise in UK: warning it could be mistaken for common cold

[Sly Saint]

Tuberculosis, a serious lung infection also called the '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 11 per cent by the end of last year reaching 5,000, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report.

It means that roughly one in every 25,000 people in England has the infection, though this rises to almost one in every 5,000 people in London.

Four out of five of new cases were among people born outside the UK, the highest proportion since 2000.

People originally from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Romania were biggest non-British born groups among tuberculosis (TB) patients.

Health chiefs are now urging people with potential TB symptoms not to dismiss the signs, which include a continuous cough, and can be easily mistaken for common winter infections such as a cold or flu.

Their warning comes as separate NHS data shows a 350 per cent surge in flu cases in hospitals in England.

Dr Esther Robinson, the head of UKHSA's TB unit, urged people not to dismiss potential TB symptoms, especially if they were a recent arrival to Britain.

'TB is curable and preventable, but the disease remains a serious public health issue in England,' she said.

'If you have moved to England from a country where TB is more common, please be aware of the symptoms of TB so you can get promptly tested and treated through your GP surgery.'

'Not every persistent cough, along with a fever, is caused by flu or COVID-19. A cough that usually has mucus and lasts longer than 3 weeks can be caused by a range of other issues, including TB. Please speak to your GP if you think you could be at risk.'

Warning of 'Victorian disease easily mistaken for a winter cold

 

[rvallee]

Gee, I can't imagine why people would have this idea that a serious respiratory illness could be just a cold.

Certainly can't think of where they could have gotten this idea.

A total mystery we will never solve, for sure.

 

[Sly Saint]

Numerous publications reporting this:

Health officials are growing increasingly concerned about a surge in Tuberculosis (TB) - which caused the world's oldest and deadliest pandemic - following a rise in cases.

After over a decade of decline, positive TB infections in the UK are rising once again. In England, 5,480 individuals fell ill with TB last year, marking a 13% increase from 2023. That is the largest spike since 1970. TB is a contagious bacterial infection primarily affecting the lungs. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and spreads through airborne droplets.

I can remember having BCG vaccinations at secondary school.
The NHS vaccination program was stopped on the grounds of it being 'uneconomical'.

Benefits and costs of the schools' BCG vaccination programme. | The BMJ

Abstract
By the mid-1980s the schools' BCG vaccination programme will be uneconomic. It is estimated that it will cost about pounds5500 to prevent one case of tuberculosis, the average total cost of which would be between pounds400 and pounds1300 depending on medical policy about the degree of illness for which hospital admission is necessary. In December 1975 the costs of the BCG programme were greater than its monetary benefits, probably by a factor of about 2.

Hmm.
paper from 2016
Duration of BCG protection against tuberculosis and change in effectiveness with time since vaccination in Norway: a retrospective population-based cohort study - The Lancet Infectious Diseases

Interpretation
Findings are consistent with long-lasting BCG protection, but waning of VE with time. The vaccine could be more cost effective than has been previously estimated

add mass immigration of unvaccinated people..... shouldn't come as a surprise.

 

[perchance dreamer]

May I be gone before the resurgence of plague wagons and calls of bring out your dead.

 

[BrightCandle]

I can't help but think the healthcare systems across the entire west (the world?) have been so broken by "its just a cold *cough* Covid *cough*" and the lack of public health around all respiratory diseases that if you do turn up with TB they will simply send you home with a "mystery" virus diagnosis.

 

[Utsikt]

I can't help but think the healthcare systems across the entire west (the world?) have been so broken by "its just a cold *cough* Covid *cough*" and the lack of public health around all respiratory diseases that if you do turn up with TB they will simply send you home with a "mystery" virus diagnosis.

For sure! The worst part is that we have known how to eradicate TB since the fifties. They pretty much eradicated it from the US at the time by actively searching for it through a screening program with x-ray vans.

Yet it’s the deadliest curable disease in the world, with over 1 million deaths annually. Most of those occur in underdeveloped countries because the company that holds the patents for the quick tests inflates the prices to make more money for their rich owners. And treatment takes months with a cocktail of drugs because nobody bothered to try to make it cheaper and more accessible when TB didn’t affect wealthy people.

John Green has been working on increasing awareness about this for a while (and working with those who started long before him). He recently published a book called Everything is Tuberculosis.