Drug resistant TB 'rising in UK'

Drug resistant tuberculosis is posing a growing threat in the UK, probably fuelled by immigration, say experts.

A Health Protection Agency team examined 28,620 TB infections in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2005.

They found the proportion of cases resistant to any of the first-line drugs rose from 5.6% to 7.9%.

The British Medical Journal study also found a small increase in cases of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).

However, although the number of people becoming infected with drug-resistant TB has almost doubled, from 170 in 1998 to 336 in 2005, they still make up a small proportion of the total number of TB infections.

The HPA researchers found a significant increase in resistance to one particular drug, isoniazid, outside London.

Many of these patients came from sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where they may have developed immunity to the drug.

The researchers said measures to control outbreaks of TB among prisoners and drug users were not up to scratch.

They said the shortcomings of the current system were illustrated by the fact that an outbreak of drug resistant TB among prison inmates and drug users which began in London in 1999 was still producing new cases.