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Action Plan on TB
[Archive CMO Feature - Last updated: 07/10/04]

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has announced new measures to tackle the rise of tuberculosis in Britain, a serious but treatable infectious disease.

The measures are detailed in a plan, Stopping Tuberculosis in England, published on Thursday 7 October, 2004. They include quicker and more effective screening of high risk groups, DNA fingerprinting to track the spread of the disease in communities and better coordination of clinical care.

The rate of tuberculosis (TB) has been rising in England over the last 10 years, particularly in London and other cities. There are now 13 cases per 100,000 people, and every year around 350 people die from the disease.

But experience elsewhere has shown that the march of TB can be halted. The plan aims to increase awareness of the disease, in order to help identify the infection early and prevent it spreading further.

'Our long-term goal is to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, TB in this country,' said the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). 'Identifying the high risk groups early, ensuring effective treatment for them and using modern laboratory techniques to track the disease are all vital control measures. We need to get back to public health basics.'

The Secretary of State for Health, John Reid, said he was 'very grateful' to the CMO for his work on what was a 'hugely important problem'.

Specific actions in the plan include information campaigns targeted at high-risk groups such as prisoners, the homeless, people dependent on drugs and alcohol and recent immigrants from high-prevalence countries. It also underlines the need for more effective screening of those groups, for example with mobile digital x-ray vans.

In clinical care, the plan supports the development of new TB clinical networks, and the assignment of a named case manager to every TB patient. This can help deal with the growing incidence of 'complex' cases, where unsettled life circumstances can lead patients to abandon treatment.

• Download Stopping Tuberculosis in England: An action plan from the Chief Medical Officer (PDF, 310K)