National quarterly report of tuberculosis in Scotland
Provisional data for quarter 1, 2024

Official statistics in development

Published: 02 May 2024
Type: Statistical report
Author: Public Health Scotland

Health protection

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the first release of quarterly Official statistics in development on tuberculosis (TB) notifications in Scotland. This new release presents provisional data from the national enhanced surveillance system for TB in Scotland. This is in addition to an annual TB surveillance report which is published by PHS. The content of these reports will be reviewed and developed over time following feedback from stakeholders and user engagement.

Main points

Provisional data in 2023 and quarter 1 2024 shows that:

There were 51 TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024.
Tuberculosis notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 increased by 18.6% compared with quarter 1 in 2023.
The percentage of TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 that were male was 62.7% compared with 53.5% in quarter 1 of 2023.
In quarter 1 of 2024, TB notifications were received from 9 NHS boards.
Most TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 were from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian.
The percentage of TB notifications presenting with pulmonary disease in quarter 1 of 2024 decreased to 54.9% from 60.5% in quarter 1 of 2023.

Overall numbers

The number of TB notifications per quarter for Scotland are shown in Figure 1 and the cumulative number of notifications by month, in Figure 2.

There were 51 TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 which is an increase of 18.6% when compared with the same quarter of 2023 but lower than the number of cases reported in the preceding quarters of 2023.

Table 1. TB notifications in Scotland by quarter, January 2019 to quarter 1, 2024
Year	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Q1	61	57	44	50	43	51
Q2	55	44	66	50	83	-
Q3	58	56	67	56	82	-
Q4	68	60	48	45	77	-
Total	242	217	225	201	285

Figure 1 is a bar chart showing number of tuberculosis cases reported in Scotland per quarter from January 2019 to March 2024 (quarter 1). Each bar represents the number of cases for that quarter. The chart shows that tuberculosis cases per quarter fluctuate, starting with 61 cases in quarter 1 2019 to 51 cases in Q1 2024. The highest number of cases in between Q1 2019 and Q1 2024 was 83 cases a in quarter 2 of 2023 and the lowest number was 43 cases in 2023. Quarters 2, 3 and 4 in 2023 are the had the highest number of cases during this period. The number of cases in quarter 1 2024 (51) was lower than that in quarter 3 2023 (77). The chart shows that there was an increased number of cases in quarter 2 to quarter 3 2023. — Image caption **Figure 1. TB notifications in Scotland by quarter, 2019 to quarter 1, 2024**

Figure 2 is a line chart showing the cumulative number of tuberculosis cases reported in Scotland by quarter from quarter 1 2019 to quarter 1 2024. Each line represents the number of cumulative cases for that year. The chart shows that tuberculosis cases each year shows a steady monthly increase and cases were highest in 2023 followed by 2019 and were lowest in 2022. — Image caption **Figure 2. Cumulative TB notifications in Scotland by month, 2019 to quarter 1, 2024**

TB notifications by sex

The percentage of TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 that were male was 62.7% compared with 53.5% in quarter 1 of 2023.

Geographical distribution

Figure 3 shows the TB notifications Scotland each quarter by NHS board. By NHS Board. In quarter 1 of 2024:

TB notifications were received from nine NHS boards.
Most TB notifications were from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian.
Compared with quarter 1 2023, TB notifications increased in five NHS boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside), decreased in two NHS Boards (NHS Borders and NHS Lanarkshire) and remained unchanged in three NHS boards (NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and NHS Lothian).

Figure 3 is a stacked bar chart showing the TB notifications in Scotland each quarter by NHS board between quarter 1 2019 and quarter 1 2024. The chart shows that the highest number of TB cases reported each quarter were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GC) and Lothian (LO) while Orkney (OR), Shetland (SH) and Western Isles (WI) had the lowest number of cases. — Image caption **Figure 3. Number of TB notifications in Scotland by NHS board by quarter, January 2019 to quarter 1, 2024**

Site of TB disease

Figure 4 shows the proportion of TB notifications in Scotland with pulmonary and non-pulmonary disease by quarter. In quarter 1 of 2024, 54.9% of TB notifications presented with pulmonary disease compared with 60.5% in quarter 1 2023.

Figure 4 is a horizontal bar chart showing the proportion of TB notifications in Scotland by site of disease by quarter between 2019 and quarter 1 2024. The site of disease was classified as pulmonary or non-pulmonary. The chart shorts the proportion of pulmonary TB cases has been variable being highest in quarter 2 2019 at 75% and lowest in quarter 4 2021 at 38%. In the most recent quarter, 54.9% of TB notifications presented with pulmonary disease compared to 60.5% in quarter 1 2023. — Image caption **Figure 4. Proportion of TB notifications in Scotland by site of disease, January 2019 to quarter 1, 2024**

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 25 July 2024.

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Older versions of this publication

Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.