With support from Barts Charity, leading health experts are joining forces to help tackle tuberculosis (TB) in East London.
Together with local TB advocates, specialists from Queen Mary University of London (Queen Mary) and Barts Health NHS Trust (Barts Health), the Queen Mary & Barts Health Tuberculosis Centre will deliver step-changes in how we understand, diagnose, treat and campaign for TB care, helping patients not just in our local community but around the world.
TB is an infectious disease caused by bacteria, which is predominantly spread by coughing. Across the world, 1.25 million people died from TB in 2023. The disease most commonly affects the lungs, but it can affect other parts of the body too, including the spine and the brain.
Delays in diagnosis can cause life-long issues for patients and have devastating physical effects that can also impact mental and cognitive wellbeing. If TB is left untreated, the effects can be life-threatening. A number of patients in East London die of TB each year, despite the world class treatment available.
Right now, East London has the highest number of newly diagnosed cases of TB in Western Europe, often linked to social deprivation, and particularly affecting people from South Asian and African backgrounds.
Barts Health manages 5-6% of TB cases nationally. In 2024 that was 294 patients. The average age of a TB patient seen at Barts Health is 30-35 years old. Late diagnosis can affect young peoples’ long term health and their ability to lead long, happy and productive lives.
The good news is that TB is curable with medication. To bring down rates of TB and provide crucial care for patients living with the long-term impacts of the disease, we need new approaches to how we understand and treat it.
That is why we’ve committed to fund £4.63m to create the Queen Mary & Barts Health Tuberculosis Centre.
Together, teams of leading East London researchers and clinical experts in TB will push forward new scientific discoveries in the lab and drive innovation in the services that Barts Health offers to local TB patients so they can get started on treatment more quickly, and suffer fewer long-term complications.
Local expertise includes:
Research based at a purpose-built laboratory in the Blizard Institute (Queen Mary) will focus on key questions to improve our scientific understanding of TB bacteria and how the human immune system responds to them. Specific projects will focus on:
Clinical innovation in how TB is diagnosed and treated will be rolled out for TB patients in East London. This will include:
“TB is a major infectious disease that is particularly common in East London. Our vision is to provide step-changes in scientific understanding, diagnosis and treatment of TB, that will be relevant not just to our diverse local community, but also to the 10 million people who fall ill with TB around the world every year.”Professor Adrian Martineau, Clinical Professor of Respiratory Infection and Immunity at Queen Mary.
“TB is not a disease of ’yester year’ and we’re still seeing many patients in East London with TB in their lungs and elsewhere in the body. The Centre will allow us to diagnose and treat patients earlier. For patients with long-term problems, the post-TB services will mean being able to see not just doctors like myself, but physiotherapists and psychologists who can support them to return to a happier, healthier and more productive life, faster.”Dr Veronica White, Respiratory Consultant specialising in TB and Deputy Medical Director of Whipps Cross University Hospital.
A dedicated patient and public involvement (PPI) group will also be at the core of this work. They will advise the research and clinical teams and provide support to patients who are going through TB treatment or in follow-up care. This will help bring a diversity of voices to how we understand, treat and advocate for TB.
This will be led by Amy McConville. Amy is a TB survivor and the Co-Founder, Chair and Facilitator for the TB Action Group (TBAG), a network for people affected by TB in the UK, supported by the charity TB Alert.
Amy was diagnosed with TB while at university. Unfortunately, as Amy’s symptoms were quite general and as there was little awareness of TB, she didn’t get a diagnosis until a year later. Amy had to have her left lung removed and she will be impacted by the knock-on effects of the disease for the rest of her life. She is now passionate about spreading awareness of TB within the East London community and using her lived experience to advocate for improved TB services, both at local and national levels.
“TB is quite a lonely disease. And like many people, I didn't know anyone who had it. Talking to someone who’s had TB too can make people feel less lonely and motivates them to keep going with treatment. "The fact that the PPI group will be embedded in the work of the new TB Centre shows just how much the team value input from patients and survivors of TB. Getting insight from those like myself who have gone through the treatment journey will be invaluable for researchers and clinical teams to understand what patients go through and the barriers that we face. I’m really excited to work with the team and support people from all walks of life.”Amy McConville, TB survivor and the Co-Founder, Chair and Facilitator for the TB Action Group.
East London is disproportionately affected by TB with high numbers of patients in the community. This puts the new TB Centre in a unique position to test and develop innovations with patients, on a scale that other parts of the UK can’t. These innovations will be evaluated by the Centre’s research teams to see how effective they are. If they prove successful then not only will this improve how we understand and treat TB in East London, but it has the potential to improve the lives of people with TB around the world as well.
“At Barts Charity we work closely with our partners, Queen Mary and Barts Health, on funding projects that will improve the health of our East London community. The Centre for TB is an incredible example of this partnership work. TB has a very real impact on people in East London – and we have a wealth of global expertise locally. We’re confident that this new Centre for TB will not only transform the health of our local East London community, but also have an impact on those living with TB across the globe.”Fiona Miller Smith, Chief Executive of Barts Charity.
Research funded by Barts Charity and led by Queen Mary, suggests that people may experience long-term health impacts following acute respiratory infections including cold, influenza and pneumonia that are not due to Covid-19, and that may be going unrecognised.
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