Scotland

As the news broke today that a man in Glasgow was being treated for the awful disease tuberculosis (TB) I must admit I wasn’t very surprised. At one time TB was a terrible problem in Scotland but, after a long struggle, it was almost wiped out. However, over the last few years, there appears to have been a sudden increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital with tuberculosis or a suspicion of having it.

Only a week or two ago there was great alarm in the Outer Hebrides, found off the west coast of Scotland, when it was reported that somebody had been admitted to the Western Isles Hospital, in Stornoway, suffering from TB. The interesting thing about this is that the very first hospital built on the islands was for the very purpose of providing treatment for tuberculosis. Large numbers of children had to be tested for this highly contagious disease and there was general panic amongst the children of the Isle of Lewis and the Isle of Harris (an no doubt a little further away too).

However, when I investigated the story further I was extremely alarmed to discover that the guy was actually suffering from the extremely rare form of the disease known as XDR-TB. XDR-TB is a form of tuberculosis which is extremely drug-resistant and obviously very difficult to treat. A case had been reported in 2003 but this is the first since then.

In an attempt to reduce alarm it would appear that the government and the press are content in saying that you can only catch this disease by prolonged close contact with a person suffering from it. Personally I doubt that it is this difficult to catch and, without sounding alarmist, I seriously think there will be little difference from the normal strain. Furthermore, if it really is that tough, then surely it is more able to survive outside the body.

Of course the good news is that this is the first case in a number of year and the guy is said to be from overseas and not from Scotland. Unfortunately this seems to be the case in most instances of the disease but since we stopped giving the TB vaccination a few years ago this surely leaves a large percentage of the younger population at risk? Furthermore does the vaccination work against the form known as XDR-TB.

As nearly all cases of TB in Scotland appear to be from overseas, especially Asia and very poor countries, does this not create a need to examine all people traveling from such countries? Or, better still, shouldn’t we be working with these countries to help them fight the disease? The solutions seem obvious to me so why do we spend millions of pounds every year in relief aid but hardly any cash in preventing such disasters in the first place.

As tourism is such an important part of the economy of  Scotland surely it makes total sense to take extra precautions to stop this terrible disease from gaining a foothold again? While I am thankful that our health services perform an excellent job in protecting us I think some of the responsibility should be passed to the Scottish Government.