Aug 3 2004
Calls for the British Government to take action on TB have been met by a wall of silence from the Department of Health. The British Thoracic Society, the British Lung Foundation and TB Alert are warning that lives are being put at risk by the Government’s failure to publish the long-promised TB Action Plan.
The Plan was expected to set out the Government’s framework of actions to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB. The need for urgent action on TB was called for two and a half years ago by the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, and the Department of Health has said that TB is no longer under control as a public health problem. But still the TB Action Plan has not been published.
The most recent figures on TB show England and Wales to be the only EU countries with an increase in TB over the past 10 years - the 15th consecutive year that the incidence of TB has risen. BTS research shows there are inadequate numbers of specialist nurses in the UK’s TB hotspots, which could contribute to a further rise in cases of the disease if not addressed.
Professor Peter Ormerod, member of the British Thoracic Society Joint TB committee said:
“It is amazing that on one hand the Government makes grandiose statements about building a modern, hi-tech NHS, but when it comes to deciding how we are going to manage a Victorian disease like TB we appear to be still living in the dark ages.
It seems to me that when it comes to TB, John Reid is all talk and no action.”
Dr John Moore-Gillon, President of the British Lung Foundation, said:
“The longer the Department of Health puts off publishing the Action Plan, TB gets more out of control and the problem gets worse. We are sensing strongly that the Action Plan has been put to one side in the hope that it has been forgotten. Yet again sufferers of lung conditions like TB are being disadvantaged because resources are being diverted to those disease areas that have a national service framework and overt targets.”
Sir John Crofton, President of TB Alert, said:
“Despite the seriousness of the situation, there is an apparent lack of urgency on the Government’s part to take action on TB. It is now two and a half years since the Chief Medical Officer for England identified TB as an area where intensified action is needed, but there has been no movement since then.”
Great Ormond Street Hospital today unveiled how it is managing the problem by launching a new specialist TB clinic in response to the soaring number of cases in London, warning of the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of the disease unless action is taken. TB cases in the capital have doubled in the last 15 years.
TB recently made headlines with Nelson Mandela calling for more to be done in tackling the disease at a recent summit in Bangkok. The former South African President contracted TB during his imprisonment on Robben Island.