An influx of foreign visitors has helped to increase the number of cases of tuberculosis in England and Wales by 10 per cent to their highest level since 1983, according new figures released in Britain today.
However figures in Ireland show we have the lowest proportion of TB cases in Europe amongst foreign born patients.
Last year in Britain the number of new cases of the infectious lung disease, once thought to be under control, jumped 10.6 per cent, with two-thirds of the infections in London, the Public Health Laboratory Service said.
The increase last year means that there has been an overall rise of 34 per cent since 1987 whereas the disease had declined tenfold over the previous 40 years.
Most of the new cases in the airborne lung disease between 1999-2000 were in males and the biggest increases were among 25-64 year olds.
Surveillance data shows most of the recent increase in the disease is attributable, at least in part, to infections in people coming from countries which have a high prevalence of the tuberculosis.
Despite the best efforts of the World Health Organisation to eradicate the disease, it is still rampant in many countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, and poses a threat to the rest of the world.
According to the National Disease Surveillance Centre TB figures had been falling steadily from 1991 until 1999 when there was a slight increase from 424 in 1998 to 457 in 1999. Of that 457, 64 patients were born outside Ireland. Provisional figures for 2000 show that the rate has fallen, with 285 cases in the first nine months, and 33 of those were foreign-born.
Additional reporting Reuters