You need to do many things to get on top of TB

Dr Sue Atkinson, London Director of Public Health

Dr Heather Milburn, a TB expert from Guys and St Thomas' Hospital, said: "My concern is that those of us who look after patients with TB now will find we are unable to cope with increasing numbers."

The belief that the vast majority of TB cases emerge in people who have recently arrived in the UK from countries where TB is rife is incorrect.

In many cases, the patients may not feel ill until years after contracting the infection, so it can prove hard to trace exactly where they picked it up.

Many refugees

Newham is the London borough with the highest rates of TB.

Tim Baker, from the Newham Chest Clinic, said that the area's relative poverty would always make it likely to harbour large numbers of cases.

"It's hard to deal with TB."

He said: "TB is strongly associated with deprivation, with a history of travel from other parts of the world with high rates of TB.

"In Newham we see a high number of asylum seekers and refugees passing through the borough."

London Director of Public Health, Dr Sue Atkinson, told the BBC: "It's always difficult - you need to do many things to get on top of TB.

"We need to do proper screening when people come into the country, but only half the cases are in people who are new to the country - the rest could have been here definitely more than 10 years.

"That's why there is importance in getting the right number of TB nurses, so that they can actually trace the contacts of these people."

"There were difficulties with the BCG vaccination - that's now back on stream, and in London, all the schools have restarted their vaccination programmes, and have started their catch-up."