[Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine] One Person a Week Dies With Undiagnosed and Untreated TB in England, Study Finds

23 June 2026

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine news release

A national cohort study of TB in England has found that, between 2010 and 2022, an average of nearly one person each week was diagnosed with TB after they had died.

Researchers used data from UK Health Security Agency’s National TB Surveillance System to examine all TB notifications in England between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2022. Among 72,039 people diagnosed with TB during this period, 574 individuals (0.8%) were diagnosed only after death, equating to nearly one postmortem TB diagnosis every week.

The findings come as TB rates in England have reached a 10-year high, at 9.4 cases per 100,000 population (2024), while TB mortality among people diagnosed with TB is also at its highest level in a decade.

Read the full news release here.

Source: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine