Warnings of London TB outbreak

Fresh fears of a tuberculosis outbreak in London emerged today as the Government launched a new campaign to try to eradicate the disease.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson warned that London was particularly at risk from the potentially fatal disease.

"Two out of five cases in Britain come from London, and in some boroughs the number of infections are as high as in a developing country. We have definitely seen pockets of high infection around the capital," he said.

It is believed an outbreak of TB in north London in January 2000 caused about 184 infections, Sir Liam revealed. "We need to utilise new technology such as mobile x-ray machines and genetically fingerprinting the disease to cut the number of infections," he said. The x-ray machines, which will cost about ?400,000 each, will be used to monitor high-risk patients such as recent arrivals from abroad, prisoners and the homeless.

Department of Health research released today found that seven out of 10 carriers of TB were from an ethnic minority group and twothirds were born abroad.

Sir Liam also admitted vaccination programmes needed to be improved. Currently children are given a BCG injection containing a mild strain of bovine TB which causes them to build up resistance to the disease.

"We need to do better vaccinating high-risk children, and education is also key, particularly in areas where English may not be spoken."

Sir Liam also admitted the BCG vaccine may not be 100 percent effective. "This is not a perfect vaccine," he said.

Tuberculosis is an infectious dis-ease that usually affects the lungs but can spread to any part of the body. The first signs of the disease can be coughing up blood.

Casual contact with a carrier only carries a infection risk of 1 in 100,000, being in a confined space with an infected person increases that risk to 1 in 10.

In England cases fell until the mid-1980s but started to rise again in the 1990s. Cases have increased by 25 percent in the past 10 years with about 6,500 cases now reported each year. TB is curable with a course of antibiotics.