TB as big an issue as ever

Feb 27 2013 by Staff Reporter, Birkenhead News

TB SPECIALIST nurse Lesley Brogelli is on a mission to raise awareness of a disease that many people in the UK mistakenly think was wiped out years ago and at the same time raising funds for a charity that supports tuberculosis projects in this country and around the world.

Lesley, who is the lead nurse for Wirral’s TB Nursing Service at Wirral University Teaching Hospital, said: “Year after year I spend World TB Day in supermarkets handing out leaflets to increase public knowledge of this terrible disease and I’m always met with the same astonished reaction because people think tuberculosis was eradicated about 50 years ago.

“I get the same response when I tell people I’m a specialist TB nurse. They tell me that my job can’t be busy because there’s so little TB about. It’s a complete fallacy. We’ve never been busier. We’re seeing more cases each year and every case has to be followed up and many involve us in a massive amount of contact tracing.”

There were 822 cases of TB in the north west in 2011, a rate of 11.9 cases per 100,000 – and the largest figure since enhanced TB Surveillance was introduced in 1999. In England and Wales as a whole there were 8,963 cases in the same period.

To increase public knowledge of the disease and to raise funds for the charity TB Alert, Lesley is putting on a night of entertainment in the Wro Lounge, Wro Loft and Wro Bar Grange Road, West Kirkby, on Saturday, March 23 – the day before World TB Day.

People attending will receive a complimentary drink, chips and dips. Entertainment will be provided by local group Pleural Tap, Nala (female vocalist with acoustic guitar accompaniment) and a magician who will work in the three venues in the course of the night.

Tickets are £20 from Lesley Brogelli on 07717 376462 and the Wro on 0151 625 2010.

Every penny raised will go to TB Alert.