Sustaining tuberculosis decline in the UK

Abstract

The re-emergence of tuberculosis in England began in the late 1980s increasing to a peak in 2011; since then incidence has fallen throughout the UK, in both the UK and non-UK born population, including in children.1 After 4 consecutive years of declining incidence of tuberculosis, sustained progress is finally being made with a 30% decline between 2011 and 2015.1 However, tuberculosis incidence in the UK remains higher than in most other high-income European countries and more than four times higher than in the USA.