Scottish Government
 Printable version
|
 E-mail this to a friend
|
Battle against tuberculosis
Scotland has a proud history as a world leader in the battle against tuberculosis - and now an action plan is being launched to take this into the 21st century.
Until the 1950s, TB was a major killer in Scotland, spreading like wildfire through the crowded, damp tenements of the major cities and ruining the lives of victims and their families.
During that decade it was a Scottish-based doctor, Sir John Crofton, who led the fight against the highly contagious disease with his revolutionary 'Edinburgh Method' - a combination of the drugs then available to treat TB which cured even those whose disease had developed a resistance to the individual medicines.
In just a few short years, TB was not only halted in its tracks but began a steep decline, as Sir John's technique was adopted across Scotland and the wider UK.
While now very rare, TB is still with us. So today, the Scottish Government will mark World TB Day by starting work on an Action Plan for tuberculosis.
Public Health Minister Shona Robison said there could be no complacency when it came to such a potentially deadly disease.
A working group bringing together experts in the field, including specialist TB doctors and nurses and representatives from Health Protection Scotland and the UK-wide Health Protection Agency, will now get to work on preparing a draft plan by the end of this year.
It will focus on issues around TB surveillance, screening, clinical services and laboratory work, as well as education and awareness raising.
The group will build on work already carried out by Health Protection Scotland (HPS), involving a range of TB specialists, health boards and other parts of the NHS, which has today published a version of the NICE guidelines - 'Clinical Diagnosis and Management of TB and Measures for its Prevention' - adapted for Scotland.
With an incidence of 7.9 cases per 100,000 population - around 400 cases per year, Scotland remains within the World Health Organisation target of less than 10 cases per 100,000 and this rate is lower than the rest of the UK and many other European countries. Scotland's rate has been stable for the past decade.
Public Health Minister Shona Robison said:
"Tuberculosis is a serious disease which, although now thankfully rare, still exists in 21st century Scotland.
"Scotland has a proud history of treating TB and we have a duty to build on that legacy to make sure we prevent the disease from spreading and provide effective treatment to sufferers to allow them to return to health.
"The Action Plan we are embarking on today - World TB Day - will focus on the effective detection and treatment of TB and will bring leading experts together to make sure we have the best possible systems in place to help sufferers and protect the general public.
"We need to be aware of the risk of TB, while keeping its low prevalence in perspective. Perhaps most importantly, we need to fight the stigmatisation of people who by no fault of their own are suffering from this illness."
Tuberculosis (TB) is, in most cases, curable and is usually treated with a course of four different antibiotics. The classic symptoms of TB are a chronic cough with blood-tinged mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss.
While TB is no longer a major public health concern in most of Europe, it remains a significant problem elsewhere.
Worldwide in 2005, there were 1.6 million deaths from TB, with the highest incidence in Sub Saharan Africa, with around 350 new cases per 100,000 people per year.
Sir John Crofton (b.1912) was Professor of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis at the University of Edinburgh from 1952 to 1977. He served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1973 to 1976 and was knighted for his work in 1977. Even now in his nineties, Sir John remains an active campaigner for TB control.
Related Information
