Immigration drives up tuberculosis figures

The number of people with tuberculosis in the Netherlands went up for the first time in years in 2009, due almost entirely to the increase in immigration from countries where TB is prevalent.


In total, over 1160 were diagnosed with the disease, two-thirds of whom were born abroad. For example, resistant strains of TB are common in Eastern Europe, the national TB foundation said.
But the number of infectious cases of TB was stable at around 210 cases and the death rate was also constant at around 20 cases a year, the foundation said.

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