Health experts: pub-goers not at risk of "clubbers" tuberculosis

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Health experts have denied claims that pub-goers are putting themselves at risk of contracting a "clubbers" strain of tuberculosis.A spokeswoman for...

Health experts have denied claims that pub-goers are putting themselves at risk of contracting a "clubbers" strain of tuberculosis.

A spokeswoman for the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) told thePublican.com that director Professor Francis Drobniewski did not state that pubs and clubs posed more of a risk than other public places.

She said that reports that two out of the 60 sufferers had stated that they could have contracted the disease in a pub or a club had been blown out of proportion.

"We're not citing going to pubs as a risk - there is absolutely no risk at all," the spokeswoman said. "The possibility really has been blown out of proportion."

"People have to spend a very prolonged amount of time with a person that has the active disease and is not just a carrier. Pubs and clubs are not the kind of places where this is the case.

"Usually people catch it from close family or from close friends or in the workplace."

This denial comes after leading newspapers and television stations claimed that young clubbers and bar-goers "were the latest victims of a powerful new strain of TB".

Although the average age of sufferers has been mid twenties, people of all ages have contracted the disease, the PHLS said.

This outbreak, which is said to be the worst drug-resistant tuberculosis in Britain, has already infected up to 60 victims and it is expected that 100 will have the disease before the year is over

The disease, which has particularly hit London, was common in Britain before modern drugs were developed to combat it. Last year almost 3,000 cases were diagnosed - an increase of 17.8 per cent on the year before.

This figure accounted for 40 per cent of the total number of cases in England and Wales. But whereas pubs and clubs have been cited as possible places to contract the disease, latest outbreaks have occurred at a hospital and in a nursery.

Related topics Health & safety

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