Rising cases of TB and measles in England demand ambitious public health approach, says Harries

Rising cases of tuberculosis (TB) and measles and an intense influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season were seen in England in 2024-25, reiterating the fact that “we cannot be complacent,” the outgoing head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

The agency’s first report on infectious diseases looks at data from 2023 to early 2025 and acknowledges that social mixing, international travel, migration, and vaccine hesitancy following the covid-19 pandemic have contributed to these patterns of infection.1

Provisional data for 2024 show that there were 600 new cases of TB in England in 2024, 13% more than in 2023. This followed an 11% increase in cases in 2023, with 4855 notifications of the disease compared with 4380 in 2022.

If cases of TB continue to increase on their current trajectory the UK would lose its World Health Organisation low incidence status, warned Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, at the agency’s annual meeting in …