![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_devonbugJPG.jpg\")
Map of Victorian superbug cases in Devon(Image: Reach)<\/p>\nCases of a Victorian superbug are rising across most of Devon as medics record record levels of a worrying drug-resistant strain.<\/p>\n
Figures released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show there were 5,490 notifications of tuberculosis (TB) in England in 2024.<\/p>\n
That was a 13% increase – or more than 600 additional cases – from 4,831 notifications in 2023, which was itself 11% higher than in 2023.<\/p>\n
The proportion of drug-resistant TB reached its highest level since enhanced surveillance began in 2012. Of all laboratory-confirmed cases, 2.2% showed resistance to multiple drugs.<\/p>\n
The UKHSA has already warned that if the trend of rising cases is not reversed, the UK could lose its \u201clow-incidence\u201d status for TB, which it has held since 2017.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies countries with a threshold of 10 TB cases per 100,000 people as low-incidence.<\/p>\n
England now has a rate of 9.4 notifications per 100,000 people, just below the low-incidence threshold and up from 8.5 per 100,000 people in 2023. However, that is still well below this century\u2019s peak of 15.6 notifications per 100,000 in 2011.<\/p>\n
In Devon, rates are below the national average, but the latest figures show they are rising.<\/p>\n
In the three years to 2024, Plymouth<\/a> had an annual average of 15 TB notifications. That equates to 5.4 TB notifications per 100,000 people, the highest rate in Devon.<\/p>\n It has also increased from an average of 4.1 per 100,000 people in the three years to 2023.<\/p>\n In Torbay<\/a>, the TB notification rate increased from 4.5 per 100,000 to 6.3, in Exeter<\/a> it rose from 3.2 to 4.2, in Teignbridge<\/a> from 2.2 to 2.7, and in South Hams<\/a> from 1.1 to 2.6.<\/p>\n You can see how it compares to where you live using our interactive map.<\/p>\n https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/EZ3uVo2cbF15UPDIXLXRKn<\/a>https:\/\/bit.ly\/41EZjzx<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a worrying drug-resistant strain 15:27, 23 Oct 2025Updated 15:28, 23 Oct 2025 This article contains affiliate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[41353,105,8594,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-522520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-exeter","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-plymouth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115424268019934443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}