A London borough that suffers from rates of tuberculosis infection nearly as high as some developing countries is considering banding together with other councils to fight the disease.
A Stop TB Partnership report published last year found that for every 100,000 people in the borough of Newham, east London, 104 were infected – nearly as high an incidence as that seen in China and Thailand, which have, respectively, 113 and 135 cases per 100,000 people.

Newham's scrutiny panel has since published a report that suggests the high incidence of TB is linked to overcrowding in private-sector accommodation and houses in multiple occupation – an issue set to be tackled in the upcoming Housing Bill.

The council, which hosted a conference on the disease on Monday, is looking at ways of sharing the costs of new mobile chest radiography machines with other councils that have high rates of tuberculosis (see "Incidences of the disease in London", right).

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Banks stressed the need for housing departments to cooperate and added: "To reduce rising TB levels there will need to be substantial investment in housing. The problem [councils] and registered social landlords face combating the TB crisis is that they are strapped for cash".

But a source at the Department of Health said: "Poor housing was linked with the spread of TB in the 1950s. There are a lot more factors involved these days."

Source

Housing Today

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