A press release from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) details some of the findings included in its annual tuberculosis (TB) report for 2011 (the full report was not available on the website at the time of posting).

The main findings include the following:

• Although significant progress has been made in increasing the proportion of patients completing treatment, 5% of patients with TB do not complete the full six months as they are lost to follow-up

• There were 8,483 new cases of TB reported in the UK in 2010 - a decrease of 4.9% from 2009.

• London accounted for the highest proportion of cases in the UK (almost 40%), followed by the West Midlands (11%).

• Sixty per cent of TB cases in the UK occurred in young adults aged 15-44 years old and over half (57%) were male.