Immigrants and asylum-seekers are not the cause of the rising number of TB cases in Ireland, according to a leading medical expert.
Figures currently being finalised by the National Disease Surveillance Centre show that the number of new cases of tuberculosis reported last year rose to 425, compared with 416 in 1997.
However, just 7.8 per cent of these cases were non-nationals, according to the centre's director, Dr Darina O'Flanagan. The TB problem continued to be a problem linked to Irish people and was not being brought into the State by immigrants, she said.
It is understood that 22 per cent of new TB cases reported in the Dublin area were non-nationals, with asylum-seekers representing the vast majority of these non-national cases.
Just one case of TB was identified so far this year by the voluntary screening programme for asylum-seekers, although 16 were referred to clinics for further testing. However, just 2,495 of the 5,421 applicants for asylum volunteered to be tested.
Western Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand are among the only parts of the world where TB levels are currently low. The highly contagious bacterial infection is still rife in Russia, parts of eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
British medical experts were warned this week that TB rates there had risen by 20 per cent in the last 10 years. Dr O'Flanagan said the same trends were not evident in Ireland, although there were no grounds for complacency with the disease.
She stressed that TB was treatable with modern drugs and there was no need for public concern.