Increase in number diagnosed with TB

THE number of people being diagnosed with tuberculosis in Wales has risen in the past year.

Tuberculosis, or TB, is the world’s deadliest infectious disease and kills more than one million people each year, according to World Health Organisation data.

The number of TB cases increased 18% from 71 in 2022 to 84 in 2023.

However according to Public Health Wales, the longer-term trend shows cases of the disease are decreasing and Wales remains a “low-incidence” country for TB.

Cases of TB peaked in Wales in 2014 at 3.7 cases per 100,000.

While cases of TB in Wales remain low there are far more cases in south east Wales than the rest of the country.

More than half of the cases in 2023 were also from people who were born outside of the UK.

This could be the result of reactivation of latent disease which was acquired before arrival to the UK.

TB is an infection that usually affects the lungs with symptoms including a persistent cough with mucus or blood in it, feeling tired or exhausted, a high temperature or night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, and generally feeling unwell among other possible symptoms.

However rates of pulmonary TB in Wales have decreased significantly in the last five years and a greater proportion of TB diagnoses are now due to TB in other parts of the body with the lymph nodes, kidneys, and GI tract being the most common sites of extra-pulmonary infection.

Sometimes a person can have TB in their body but experience no symptoms. This is called latent TB. Visit www.nhs.uk for more information.