Transmit: Health protection service bulletin. 2011: Issue 5

This edition of Transmit has an extensive overview of tuberculosis (TB) in Northern Ireland in 2010. It provides a background to the disease and a summary of the TB situation globally and in the UK, including Northern Ireland. It also highlights the geographical trends, such as country or area of TB acquisition, outlines the situation with regard to new entrants in Northern Ireland and introduces the WHO’s Stop TB Strategy, aimed at dramatically reducing TB worldwide by 2015.

Also included this month are key tips for safe travel, including a focus on malaria, which underlines the guidelines to follow when visiting malarious regions, and a duty room update on bat bites and rabies vaccinations.

This month’s routine reports have statistics on travel-associated gastrointestinal infections, with a particular focus on Salmonella, while a summary of the quarterly reports on MRSA and C. difficile are also included.