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Back in 1957, Glasgow had the highest death rate from tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, and health officials launched an ambitious mass-screening campaign to combat the disease. Over a period of five weeks, more than 700,000 people over 14 were screened for TB. Nearly 75% of Glasgow’s population got checked with an incentive of free prize draws for those who got X-rayed. An army of 12,000 volunteers made door-to-door visits, ensuring maximum participation. This included unconventional prizes, such as cigarettes, chickens, and chocolates, apart from draws to win TVs, holidays, and cars.
The campaign was a massive success, with 2,369 people with TB getting caught and treated right away. A recent study by the University of Glasgow reveals that screening TB and preventing it from spreading widely in the city kept an estimated 4,599 cases in check, thus saving countless lives in the following five years. TB kills over 1.2m people worldwide annually, and the lessons from 1957 can help modern efforts to eradicate the disease.
Peter MacPherson, the professor of global public health at the University of Glasgow, emphasized that the mass screening had a huge impact, doubling the rate of people detected with TB and accelerating the reduction in cases. Nothing comparable exists in the world, in terms of scale, he added. He stressed the importance of historical evidence from Glasgow, which can help current guidelines and practices in mass screening for TB infections in poverty-stricken places like Africa, Asia, and South America.
TB is an infectious bacterial disease spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. If left untreated, it can be fatal; however, it can be treated with antibiotics. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 11 million people fell ill with TB worldwide last year, and more than a million of them died. Symptoms include persistent cough lasting over three weeks, weight loss, night sweats, high temperature, or fever.
Recent data from Public Health Scotland show that the number of TB cases in Scotland surged by just over 40% in 2023, the highest since 2017. The statistics reveal that 283 cases of the disease were recorded in 2022 compared to 201 in the previous year. Public Health Scotland indicates that TB cases were “strongly” linked to areas of deprivation and people born overseas, whose incidence of the disease was 19.2 times higher than people born in the UK. Despite being a low-incidence disease country, Scotland needs to remain vigilant, and the impact of the Covid pandemic might have disrupted diagnosis of TB cases, warns Prof. MacPherson
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