Raised Public Awareness Will Help with the Early Detection and Treatment of TB

20 March 2008

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) North West is supporting a worldwide campaign led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to de-mystify and de-stigmatise tuberculosis as World TB Day approaches on Monday March 24.

The aim of the campaign is to “Stop TB” by raising awareness of the infection and removing fear and mystique. It is being spearheaded internationally by Luis Figo, Portuguese football star and WHO TB ambassador.

Dr. Marko Petrovic, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and HPA North West Regional TB Lead, said: “It's very important for health professionals at all levels and the wider public to be knowledgeable about TB, but people should not be nervous or alarmed when cases occur.”

A comparison of provisional TB data for 2007 with provisional data for 2006 indicates a very slight fall across the United Kingdom that is exactly mirrored in the North West Region.

In the UK , 8496 cases were reported in 2007, which is down 0.7% from the previous year's figure of 8555. In the North West , 759 cases were reported in 2007, a reduction of 0.7% on the 764 cases provisionally reported in 2006. (See notes to editors).

Dr Petrovic said: “Even a slight decrease in the number of cases of TB is to be welcomed, but we should treat the figures with caution as the data are provisional. We should not assume from provisional data that the trend is downwards.”

Dr. Petrovic said that the early detection and treatment of infectious cases are the keys to containing TB and preventing its spread within communities.

“Detection of infectious TB will be helped by better public understanding, which is why we are so keen to raise awareness and explode the myths that still exist about the disease and how it is spread,” he said.

TB is preventable and treatable: – health professionals and the general public alike should be mindful of these key, simple facts about TB.

TB is almost always curable. It is usually treated with a six-month course of antibiotics, which MUST be completed in order to discourage recurrence of disease or drug resistance. As a general rule, patients cease to be infectious after just two weeks on treatment.
Symptoms may include: fever and night sweats, persistent cough, weight loss and blood in sputum.
TB is not usually caught by simply sitting next to an infected person. The infection usually requires prolonged and close contact with someone who is openly infectious and coughing up TB germs in order for person-to-person spread to occur.
Only about a quarter of TB cases in the UK have the ‘open' form of the disease which is potentially infectious for others. Most cases present little or no risk to others.
TB affects children and adults differently. It is very uncommon to catch TB from a child who has the disease.
“As well as contributing to the work of the Agency's national TB programme, HPA North West continues to work with our NHS and other local and regional partners to maintain the concerted effort that is required to ensure that TB is one day consigned to the annals of history,” Dr. Petrovic said.

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Notes to editors

A copy of the annual report which discussed the 2006 confirmed cases of TB can be downloaded.
Media enquiries to the Centre for Infections Press Office on 020 8327 7098/6690/7097/7750. For further information or clarification of the situation in the North West Region, please call Hugh Lamont ,
Communications Manager, HPA North West, on 0151-482-5728 or 07764-906508.
The data published in this report for both 2006 and 2007 are provisional and subject to change.

Last reviewed: 13 January 2009