TB cases continue to rise in UK, public health data shows

Rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the UK are continuing to rise, the latest figures released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show.

Compared with the previous year the number of notifications of TB rose by 12.6%, a report from the UKHSA said.

Rates are particularly high in some areas including Leicester and several parts of London, the report found.

Notifications of the disease increased across the UK with the exception of Scotland which saw a particularly high jump in 2023, officials said.

But the UK is still classed as a low TB incidence country with an overall rate of 8.6 per 100,000 population, below the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold of 10 per 100,000, the report noted.

In England the rate is currently 9.37 per 100,000 people after a 13.6% rise in notifications in 2024, the figures show.

For London as a whole the figure is 20.6 TB notifications per 100,000 population.

Leicester had the highest rate of any local authority at 42.1 notifications per 100,000 people, the report said.

The proportion of cases of multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB remained similar to the previous year at 2.1% of people but it has increased compared with 2022 when it was 1.5%.

UKHSA officials also assessed progress against a WHO target of 90% reduction in TB between 2015 and 2035.

To meet this goal a decade from now, the UK as a whole would need to reduce cases by 18.2% every year, the agency calculated.

Last year WHO raised the alarm about ‘soaring’ cases of TB around the world after more than eight million people were newly diagnosed – the highest since figures began to be collected.

Dr Esther Robinson, head of the TB Unit at UKHSA, said: ‘While England remains a low-incidence country for TB, we are concerned that TB cases are still continuing to increase.

‘TB is curable and preventable however as recent surveillance has shown, it remains a serious public health issue in England and across the UK.

‘With treatment, most people will make a full recovery. It is very important that those with relevant symptoms are tested for TB and appropriate treatment is started promptly, both for the individual and for the prevention of onward transmission.

‘We, alongside the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, are working hard to explore targeted action to tackle rising cases.’