TB making "alarming" comeback in Britain

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) Tuberculosis is making an ''alarming'' comeback in Britain, decades after doctors came close to eradicating the disease, public health officials said.

More than 8,000 people were infected last year by the airborne disease, one of the biggest killers in the Victorian era when it was known as White Death due to the pallor which shrouded its victims.

The Health Protection Agency yesterday said the number of TB cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland jumped more than 10 percent in 2005, with South Asians most at risk.

''An increase of this magnitude over the course of one year is a concern,'' said the HPA's Professor Peter Borriello.

The rise was the largest in a single year since 1999.

Thirty-eight percent of those infected were described as Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi.

Dr John Watson, head of the independent agency's respiratory diseases department, said TB levels were steady among people born in Britain. However, the big rise was not down to new arrivals in the country, he added.

Instead, those with TB may have been infected for some time, caught the disease in Britain or while travelling abroad.

Health experts attribute the rise in TB to the growth in air travel between continents and overcrowding in poor areas.

Other factors include the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the disease and the spread of AIDS. The HIV infection makes people more susceptible to infections such as TB.

Globally, TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and kills 2 million a year despite widespread control efforts.

The disease is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into the lungs and cause long-term infection.

Once known as consumption and rife among the urban poor, its threat receded with the advent of antibiotics and vaccinations.

Dr John Moore-Gillon, chairman of the British Thoracic Society Joint TB Committee and president of the British Lung Foundation, said its comeback was worrying.

''These figures are alarming and the situation is now very urgent,'' he said. ''This 19th century disease is a rapidly increasing threat in 21st century Britain.'' The government said it had an action plan to tackle the disease, but stressed that countries must work together.

Conservative Shadow Health Minister Andrew Murrison said the government had ''failed to get a grip'' on the problem.

REUTERS SHB VC0939