On World TB Day (March 24) the Mayor of London’s TB Ambassador actress Emma Thompson and her son Tindy have issued a video message to raise awareness of the disease, which is more prevalent in London than any other capital in the developed world.
In the message http://bit.ly/1BoGpsu the pair explain how Tindy caught TB in Liberia and was then diagnosed and treated by UCLH doctors, and how this prompted them to discover more about how widespread the disease is in London. They both call for an end to the stigma of TB and for more to be done to treat the disease.
The UK has the second highest rate of TB among Western European countries and rates are nearly five times higher than the US. TB is concentrated in large urban centres, with TB clinics in London managing more cases a year than those in all other western European capital cities put together. In 2013 7290 cases of TB were diagnosed in the UK with 2985 of these in London.
Emma Thompson’s appointment as the Mayor’s TB Ambassador was confirmed last month as Public Health England and NHS England announced an £11.5 million investment to tackle TB cases over the next five years and as University College London Hospitals (UCLH) launched a unique mobile 'Find&Treat Service' health unit which will travel across the capital to help diagnose TB and other infectious diseases.
In the video message, Emma Thompson said: ‘I discovered to my absolute shock and horror that London is the capital of TB in Western Europe. This was astonishing to me….what’s interesting is that the same stigma that applies to TB sufferers in the developing world and HIV sufferers, applies to TB sufferers here.’
Tindy Agaba, Emma’s son, added: ‘We have the same stigma and we have to find ways to actually address it.’
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said: ‘I am extremely grateful to Emma and Tindy for sharing their first-hand, personal experience of TB in order to raise further awareness of this terrible disease. I hope their heartfelt message will help to encourage people to come forward and get tested so we can bear down on TB levels in London.’
World TB Day falls on March 24 commemorating the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch's announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch's discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing TB. 1500,000 people worldwide were diagnosed with TB last year.
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