Growing alarm as TB cases highest for 30 years

There were 9,040 new cases in 2009, the highest figure since 1979.

Doctors are growing increasingly concerned about the illness amid evidence heightened resistance to first-line treatments has almost doubled in the past decade.

Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show the number of drug-resistant cases went from 206 in 2000 to 389 cases in 2009.

Of these, the proportion resistant to treatment with multiple types of antibiotics remained low at around one per cent but numbers have still risen from 28 in 2000 to 58 in 2009.

People can suffer drug-resistant TB either from catching a drug resistant strain or due

to inappropriate or incomplete treatment.

In 2009, almost seven per cent of new TB cases were resistant to the key first-line antibiotic treatment.

Tuberculosis kills only a fraction of the numbers prior to the introduction of antibiotics but in 2008 there were still 334 deaths in England and Wales where TB was the underlying cause.

Ibrahim Abubakar, head of TB surveillance at the HPA, said: "We are concerned to see cases of TB at their highest levels since the 1970s.

"TB is a preventable and treatable condition but, if left untreated, can be life threatening.

"Efforts to improve early diagnosis and control the spread of this infection must remain a priority and be increased in areas where prevalence is high."

Around two in five TB cases were in London last year. Most cases were in people who had lived abroad. Numbers in Yorkshire rose by 10 per cent to more than 700.