This provisional 2015 TB summary report presents an epidemiological summary of the cases of tuberculosis (TB) notified to eight HSE areas in Ireland during January - December 2015.

HPSC produces this TB report, using data submitted to it by HSE areas. TB data from the areas consist of disaggregate data on new TB notifications and some additional data on notified TB cases from previous years. Data in this report should be regarded as provisional until a process of validation has been completed at the end of that notification year. This report will invariably have incomplete data on cases until this process of validation has occurred.

Summary

During 2015: 

• 318 TB cases[1] were notified to HPSC, corresponding to a provisional crude incidence rate of 6.9 per 100,000 population.

• HSE East reported the highest number of cases at 143 (45.0% of total), with 38.4% of total cases being reported in Dublin. 

• More cases were reported in males (59.4%). 

• The highest proportion of cases (24.8%) occurred in those aged 25-34 years followed by 22.0% of cases in those aged 65 years and older.

• 39.9% of all cases were foreign born.

• Two cases of TB meningitis were notified.

• 197 cases (61.9%) were culture positive, 35 (11.0%) were culture negative, 16 (5.0%) were reported as not having been culture tested and 70 (22.0%) cases did not have culture results available.

• Of the 197 culture positive cases, M. tuberculosis was isolated in 168 (85.3%), M. tuberculosis complex in 21 (10.7%) cases and M. bovis in five (2.5%). Organism details were not reported for the remaining three culture positive cases.

• 178 (90.4%) culture positive cases had drug sensitivity details completed

• One case of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) was notified for this period.

Results

Total cases of tuberculosis notified in 2015

There were 318 cases of TB notified during the period 1^st January to 31^st December 2015. This is the same as the number of TB notifications reported for 2014. Both years represent the lowest annual number of notifications since TB surveillance began in 1998 (table 1).

The number of cases notified in each HSE area for 2015 is shown in table 2.

Table 1: TB notifications, 3 year moving average and crude incidence rate by year



Table 2: Number and percentage of TB notifications by HSE area, Q1 - 4 2015