HC Deb 19 October 1999 vol 336 cc468-9W
30. Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to tackle the growing incidence of TB. [92617]

Yvette Cooper

The United Kingdom has a good record of tuberculosis (TB) control and we are determined this should remain the case. The Government are responding positively to adverse developments in other countries. These developments inevitably impinge on the incidence of TB in this country and we have recently seen small annual increases in the incidence of TB. However, notifications of TB in the UK have reached the relatively low levels of about 6,500 cases a year from nearly 50,000 in 1950.

In addition to the existing provisions we have for the surveillance, prevention and control of TB, including drug resistant TB, within the UK, recent developments include:

  • the commencement of work on ongoing enhanced surveillance of TB to improve monitoring;
  • the appointment of regional epidemiologists to help towards a more coordinated approach to surveillance;
  • the strengthening of surveillance of drug and multidrug-resistant TB through a scheme co-ordinated by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS);
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  • the development—by the PHLS—and availability of more rapid diagnostic and drug susceptibility tests for TB, which can be used where there is a presence of risk factors which might predispose towards multidrug-resistant TB;
  • the co-ordination of the PHLS's activities through the new Tuberculosis Programme.

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