One person a week in England dies with undiagnosed TB, study finds | Tuberculosis

A study in the UK found that one person a week dies from undiagnosed and therefore untreated tuberculosis.

British-born older men were among those most likely to be diagnosed with tuberculosis only after death, researchers said, suggesting that healthcare professionals may be overlooking the possibility of the disease in these patients.

Experts said that the diagnosis of tuberculosis after death should “never be seen as an event” that requires urgent examinations and described it as a “delay in final diagnosis”.

Tuberculosis rates in England 10 year highWith 9.4 cases per 100,000 people in 2024. This rate is only slightly below the World Health Organization’s “low-incidence country” threshold of 10 cases per 100,000 people; This level is expected to be exceeded when 2025 figures are published.

Most cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed in people born outside the UK, and the average age is 36. However, research Published in Thorax magazine It found this was not the case in people diagnosed posthumously, who tended to be older and British-born.

Co-author of the study and assistant physician at the University of Liverpool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dr. “As tuberculosis rates continue to rise, even people who don’t fit the usual risk profiles are wondering, ‘Could this be tuberculosis?'” Eleanor Morgan said. “We need to keep asking,” he said.

“If the UK is to eliminate tuberculosis, reducing delays in diagnosis will be crucial so fewer people miss out on the opportunity to receive effective treatment.”

People living outside London and with a history of drug or alcohol abuse were more likely to have a postmortem diagnosis.

Researchers also found that children under the age of four were at higher risk; This may be linked to underdeveloped immune systems, nonspecific symptoms and difficulties obtaining samples from children too young for testing, they said.

Tuberculosis largest global infectious disease killerIn 2024, 1.23 million people will die from the disease and an estimated 10.7 million people will become ill.

It can be prevented and treated using special antibiotics. Recent advances have significantly reduced the time patients need to receive medication, even with drug-resistant forms of the disease.

From the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and senior author of the paper, Dr. Tom Wingfield said deaths due to superbugs such as MRSA or clostridioides difficile were routinely investigated on the NHS. Treating tuberculosis in the same way, he suggested, as “an event that never occurred that triggered root cause analysis” could help prevent future deaths.

He said the rise in tuberculosis rates in England was worrying, particularly as delayed diagnosis meant worse health, social and economic outcomes for people with the disease and a longer period of time during which the disease could be transmitted, but this should not be a “cause for panic”.

“TB is preventable, treatable and curable,” Wingfield said. TB deaths “should trigger learning, not blame, so services can identify where opportunities are missed and prevent the next preventable death”.

The researchers noted that limitations in the data they used meant it was not possible to tell whether people died of tuberculosis or other causes, or whether their deaths were caused by tuberculosis.

Dr D., consultant epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency and the study’s other author. Paul Cleary said both cases “may represent missed opportunities to detect and treat the disease earlier, as well as to prevent possible transmission to others.”

Disruption of tuberculosis detection and treatment programs globally during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a resurgence of the disease, and experts fear aid cuts by the US and other donors could have a similar effect.