The director of the National Disease Surveillance Centre yesterday warned against the danger of multi-drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis.
"We can't afford to let multi-drug-resistant TB emerge in Ireland," said Dr Darina O'Flanagan.
"It would be a disaster. Indications are we as yet do not have a problem with it and we have to be careful to make sure that the situation remains like that.
"We have been lucky in this country that the physicians who are managing TB have managed for the most part to make sure people who need treatment take it properly," she added.
She claimed there was "an epidemic" of the resistant strain sweeping across Russia.
Dr O'Flanagan was responding to Department of Health statistics, seen by The Irish Times, which show that the Western Health Board has the highest rate of TB infection of all health board regions.
The rate of infection refers to the number infected per 100,000 of population, so while the Western Health Board had the highest rate of infection in the State in 1998 - the latest year for which data is available - more new cases of TB were reported in the Eastern Health Board region.
The total number of TB cases recorded in the State in 1998 was 425, representing a 2 per cent increase on 1997 figures. Some 152 new cases were diagnosed in the EHB area; the Southern Health Board had the second highest number of new cases at 78.