TUBERCULOSIS is not a disease of the past - that was the message of the Academy of Medical Laboratory Science which held lectures around the State yesterday to heighten awareness of TB which infects eight million and kills three million people worldwide annually.
According to Dr Tom Scott, president of the academy, there is a great disparity in the incidence of the disease in this country. It ranges from 23 cases per 100,000 in the west, to nine cases per 100,000 in the north-west, to just 5.6 per 100,000 in the north.
The figures in Ireland are slightly lower than in the UK, he said, but the "most alarming" figures were found in Third World countries and represented a global health problem.
"Because of good immunisation measures and health care procedures in previous years Ireland has had a steady decline of tuberculosis from 3,166 cases in 1960 to 458 cases in 1996. However there still exists the problem of old age reactivation, poverty, homelessness, and to a lesser extent, the advent of AIDS," said Dr Scott. He said some strains of TB had developed resistance to treatment.
The academy, in conjunction with the International Association of Medical Laboratory Technology and the World Health Organisation, organised the awareness day Biomedical Science - The Key to the Cure of Tuberculosis.