New information on TB available online

A range of new information on TB including top facts and a handy Q&A will be available at the click of a button when it goes live on www.immunisation.nhs.uk tomorrow - ahead of World Stop TB Day.

The materials, also available as hard copies, have been produced by the Department of Health in collaboration with charity TB Alert to raise awareness of TB amongst health and other professionals and the public. This initiative is one of the key actions outlined in the Chief Medical Officer's National TB Action Plan launched in October last year.

The information materials are available in 20 languages and include a discrete 'credit card' with key information about symptoms and what action people should take if they are worried about TB; a 16 page factsheet which addresses concerns and misconceptions about the disease as well as answers to a wide variety of questions; and an eye catching poster.

Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson said: "We have made tackling TB a priority; producing these new informative and accessible materials is just one of the ways in which we are driving home the message that TB can affect anyone but with early diagnosis and treatment it is curable."

Chair of Britain's national tuberculosis charity TB Alert, Paul Sommerfeld said: "TB is a worldwide problem and as an airborne, infectious disease can potentially get anywhere. TB Alert has been very happy, therefore, to help in preparation of these new materials to increase awareness of the disease across Britain. There are too many cases of late diagnosis because people do not think of TB as a possibility soon enough. And late diagnosis means both other people being infected and more damage to the individual patient."

The measures to be implemented include:

• Providing multi-lingual and culturally relevant information.
• New TB clinical networks.
• Quicker and more effective screening of 'high risk' groups
• Named case managers assigned to every TB patient.
• Higher vaccination coverage of babies in high risk groups.
• DNA bacterial fingerprinting to track TB spread in communities.
• Strengthening TB surveillance in prisons.
• Wider use of Digital X-ray vans.
• Research for better drugs and vaccines.