I MUST OFFER comment on the article published in The Southern Daily Echo October 8 2020 concerning the rise of incidences in tuberculosis.
Having been born in the Southampton area in 1936, I well recall the intense nation-wide programme of mass chest x-rays of the population that started after the fledgling National Health Service began in 1948.
The then government and the NHS were proud to announce the complete eradication of this debilitating and fatal disease sometime during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
It was an incredible achievement.
Then came overseas travel to and from overseas countries where this disease was and is still endemic.
From the figures and data published, this re-introduction of tuberculosis to these islands has wiped out the hard work done all those years ago.
This also includes and undermines the salk vaccine programme that cured poliomyelitis in children at that time.
This is disturbing enough but are returning and visiting travellers not checked for diseases such as these, and given the much highlighted Covid 19 virus I would have thought it imperative.
Michael Clements
Totton
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