Get our local newsletters like Black Country News, MySolihull and MySuttonColdfield straight to your inbox<\/a><\/p>\nHealth experts say TB “remains a serious public health issue”.<\/p>\n
Leicester has had highest average cases over the last three years, latest data shows.<\/p>\n
In the three years to 2024, Leicester had an annual average of 161 TB notifications. That equates to a rate of 42.1 TB notifications per 100,000 people, the highest in England.<\/p>\n
Wolverhampton is another area of concern, 12th on the list of local authority areas with a rate of 22.3.<\/p>\n
The proportion of drug-resistant TB reached its highest level since enhanced surveillance began in 2012. Of all laboratory-confirmed cases, 2.2% showed resistance to multiple drugs.<\/p>\n
The UKHSA has already warned that if the trend of rising cases is not reversed, the UK could lose its \u201clow-incidence\u201d status for TB, which it has held since 2017.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies countries with a threshold of 10 TB cases per 100,000 people as low-incidence.<\/p>\n
England now has a rate of 9.4 notifications per 100,000 people, just below the low-incidence threshold and up from 8.5 per 100,000 people in 2023. However, that is still well below this century\u2019s peak of 15.6 notifications per 100,000 in 2011.<\/p>\n
In England last year, 82% of TB notifications were in people born outside the UK, but there was an increase in both UK-born and non UK-born populations.<\/p>\n
Dr Esther Robinson, Head of the TB Unit at UKHSA, said: \u201cTB is preventable and curable but, with rates increasing, it remains a serious public health issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must act fast to break transmission chains through rapid identification and treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to remember that not every persistent cough, along with a fever, is caused by flu or COVID-19. A cough that usually has mucus and lasts longer than 3 weeks can be caused by a range of other issues, including TB. Please speak to your GP if you think you could be at risk \u2013 particularly if you have recently moved from a country where TB is more common.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors say rising cases are a serious cause for concernTB rates are on the rise(Image: Getty Images) Cases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,104,56,54,55,2653],"class_list":["post-222738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wolverhampton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"TB\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Sick-coughing-and-man-on-a-sofa-with-chest-pain-tuberculosis-or-influenza-at-home-Asthma-anxiety.j.webp\")
TB rates are on the rise(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n