Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

One Person a Week Dies with Undiagnosed TB in England, Study Finds

- A study published in Thorax found 574 people in England were diagnosed with TB only after death between 2010 and 2022, averaging nearly one person per week. - British-born older men, children under four, and those with substance misuse history were disproportionately affected by postmortem TB diagnosis. - England's TB rate reached 9.4 per 100,000 in 2024, approaching the WHO low-incidence threshold of 10 cases per 100,000. - Researchers call for postmortem TB diagnosis to be treated as a "never event" triggering root cause analysis to prevent future deaths.