The World Health Organization is calling for increased efforts and investment to end one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases. But have we become complacent about the threat posed by TB in the UK? Are healthcare workers prepared for outbreaks, and what are they doing to protect themselves and their patients? Louise Frampton reports.
According to figures from Public Health England, there has been a year-on-year decline in the incidence of TB in England and a reduction of one-third since a peak in 2011.1 The number and proportion of TB cases with multidrug resistance/rifampicin resistance has also decreased since 2011. While this offers some good news for the UK population at present, an expert on infection outbreaks recently warned that, with the “world on the move”, we cannot afford to be complacent and must be prepared to tackle the threat posed by TB – including nosocomial transmission in UK hospitals.2 The World Health Organization (WHO) has also called for greater efforts to reduce deaths and cases of TB on a global scale, highlighting the considerable inequalities in access to cost-effective diagnosis and treatment interventions that can accelerate the rate of decline in TB worldwide.
Is nosocomial TB a problem?
Speaking at the Infection Prevention Society’s annual conference, Dr Evonne Curran commented that, although the risk of transmission of TB in UK hospitals is currently low, it is a significant threat to those infected, requiring lengthy treatment. This can be prolonged even further if the infection is drug resistant. If the “ducks are in a row, TB is a high risk to everybody,” she warned, adding that “the ducks are starting to come into alignment”.
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