National quarterly report of tuberculosis in Scotland
Provisional data for quarter 2, 2024

Official statistics in development

Published: 25 July 2024
Type: Statistical report
Author: Public Health Scotland

Health protection

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the second release of quarterly official statistics in development on tuberculosis (TB) notifications in Scotland. This 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 up to quarter 2 in 2024 shows that:

There were 82 TB notifications in quarter 2 of 2024.
Tuberculosis notifications in quarter 2 of 2024 increased by 51.9% when compared with quarter 1 in 2024 and 6.5% compared with quarter 2 in 2023.
The percentage of TB notifications in quarter 2 of 2024 that were male was 63.4% compared with 63.0% in quarter 1 2024 and 55.8% in quarter 2 of 2023.
In quarter 2 of 2024, TB notifications were received from 10 NHS boards.
Most TB notifications in quarter 2 of 2024 were from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian.
The percentage of TB notifications presenting with pulmonary disease in quarter 2 of 2024 decreased to 42.7% from 53.7% in quarter 1 2024 and 57.1% in quarter 2 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 82 TB notifications in quarter 2 of 2024, which is an increase of 6.5% when compared with the same quarter of 2023 when there were 77 notifications. This was higher than the number of TB notifications in quarter 1 of 2024 (54 notifications) and the preceding quarters of 2023 except quarter 3 which had the same number of TB notifications.

Table 1. TB notifications in Scotland by quarter, January 2019 to quarter 2, 2024
Year	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Q1	61	58	44	50	45	54
Q2	55	44	66	50	77	82
Q3	60	56	67	56	82	-
Q4	68	60	49	45	79	-
Total	244	218	226	201	283

Figure 1 is a bar chart showing the number of TB notifications in Scotland per quarter from January 2019 to June 2024 (quarter 2). Each bar represents the number of notifications for that quarter. The chart shows that tuberculosis notifications per quarter fluctuate, starting with 61 in quarter 1 2019 to 82 notifications in Q2 2024. The highest number of notifications between Q1 2019 and Q2 2024 was 82 for both quarter 3 of 2023 and quarter 2 2024. The lowest number was 44 notifications in Q2 2020 and Q1 2021. The number of notifications in quarter 2 2024 (82) was higher than that in quarter 2 2023 (77). The chart shows an increased number of notifications from 54 in quarter 1 to 82 quarter 2 2024. — Image caption **Figure 1. TB notifications in Scotland by quarter, January 2019 to quarter 2 2024**

Figure 2 is a line chart showing the cumulative number of quarterly TB notifications in Scotland from January 2019 to June 2024. Each line represents the cumulative number of TB notifications for that year. The cumulative TB notifications were highest in the period January to June 2024 and were lowest in the period January to June 2022. — Image caption **Figure 2. Cumulative TB notifications in Scotland by month, January 2019 to June 2024**

TB notifications by sex

The percentage of TB notifications in quarter 2 of 2024 that were male was 63.4% compared with 53.7% in quarter 1 2024 and 55.8% in quarter 2 of 2023.

Geographical distribution

Figure 3 shows the TB notifications in Scotland each quarter by NHS board. In quarter 2 of 2024:

TB notifications were received from 10 NHS boards.
Most TB notifications were from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian.
There were no TB notifications from four NHS boards in quarter 2 2024 (NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles).
Compared with quarter 2 2023, TB notifications increased in six NHS boards (NHS Borders, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside) but decreased in five NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Fife, NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and NHS Shetland).

Figure 3 is a stacked bar chart showing the TB notifications in Scotland each quarter by NHS board between quarter 1 2019 and quarter 2 2024. The chart shows that the highest number of TB notifications reported each quarter were from Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) and Lothian (LO) while Orkney (OR), Shetland (SH) and Western Isles (WI) had the lowest number of notifications. — Image caption **Figure 3. Number of TB notifications in Scotland by NHS boards by quarter, January 2019 to quarter 2 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 2 of 2024, 42.7% of TB notifications presented with pulmonary disease compared with 53.7% in quarter 1 2024 and 57.1% in quarter 2 2023.

Figure 4 is a horizontal bar chart showing the proportion of TB notifications in Scotland by quarter and site of disease between 2019 and quarter 2 2024. The site of disease was classified as pulmonary or non-pulmonary. The chart shows the proportion of pulmonary TB notifications varied from quarter to quarter, being highest in quarter 2 2019 at 75% and lowest in quarter 4 2021 at 38%. In the most recent quarter, 42.7% of TB notifications presented with pulmonary disease compared to 57.1% in quarter 2 2023. — Image caption **Figure 4. Proportion of TB notifications in Scotland by site of disease, January 2019 to quarter 2 2024**

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 31 October 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.