England’s tuberculosis rates fall to all-time low

Tuberculosis rates in England have fallen to their lowest level on record, figures show. There was a 38 per cent drop in the number of people diagnosed with the infectious disease between 2011 and 2017, according to data from Public Health England.

The incidence rate of TB has also declined, to 9.2 cases per 100,000 people last year. This has taken England below the World Health Organisation’s definition of a low incidence country – 10 per 100,000 – for the first time.

A total of 8,280 people in England were diagnosed with TB in 2011. That fell to 5,102 in 2017, the lowest level since 1990, when there were 5,010.