Call to combat rise in drug-resistant TB

The Government was today urged to step in after a massive rise in the number of people diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Doctors' leaders could call for a mass education campaign to warn the public of the dangers of the killer disease, as well as more isolation units at hospitals. Almost 40 per cent of all TB cases in the UK occur in London, and the latest figures show 3,333 people were diagnosed in the capital last year.

Nearly eight per cent of those cases are believed to be resistant to the normal drugs used to treat the disease.

The problem is so bad doctors have tabled a motion at the British Medical Association annual conference calling for government action.

Doctors will vote on whether they should call for more specialist isolation units to be built immediately. London has one of only two high security infectious diseases units in the country, based at the Royal Free Hospital.