In modern Britain tuberculosis, often shortened to TB, is more associated with infection in cattle than people. You would be forgiven for thinking that TB is no a concern in the age of widespread vaccination and antibiotics. In 2013, Public Health England recorded 7,892 cases of TB giving a rate of 12.3 cases per 100,000 people, one of the highest rates in Western Europe.

The poorest in the UK are seven times more likely to be affected by TB than the most well off. Between 2011 and 2017, cases of tuberculosis fell by more than a third in the UK, however, there’s still plenty of work to be done. World Tuberculosis Day falls on the 24th of March each year and is designed to raise public awareness around the disease. In the spirit of this, we are dedicating this episode to discussing tuberculosis with Dr Thomas Wingfield, an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer and Specialist Registrar in Infectious Disease working at IGH. He was awarded his PhD in 2015 for a project entitled “Preventing tuberculosis in high risk people” which involved working with 32 shantytown communities in Peru to improve TB prevention and control.