TB fears after illegal migrant in Essex asylum hotel diagnosed with deadly disease

An asylum seeker has been placed in isolation after being diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB).

The migrant is living in an asylum hotel in Essex and has been quarantined as a precautionary measure.

All small boat migrants first undergo initial health screenings in Dover and Kent.

But after contracting the deadly bug, the local NHS has provided healthcare to the unnamed hotel, the Home Office confirmed to The Sun.

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TB rates increased by 13.6 per cent in 2024 - the latest year on record - compared to the year before.

There were 5,490 notifications of the disease in 2024, compared to 4,831 in 2023.

The vast majority of cases - 82 per cent - found in people born outside Britain.

A former RAF site which housed migrants fell victim to several cases of the disease in 2023.

The Home Office did not confirm how many asylum seekers caught TB at the notorious MDP Wethersfield, near Braintree, at the time.

Also in 2023, an asylum seeker receiving "active treatment" for the latent disease was moved to controversial asylum-seeker barge the Bibby Stockholm.

In 2022, a fatal outbreak of diphtheria struck Manston, the processing site for small boat arrivals in Kent.

This resulted in the death of one Iraqi man, and 50 non-fatal cases of the bug.

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TB symptoms include a cough which lasts for more than three weeks, high temperature, drenching night sweats and loss of appetite.

According to THE UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in the first quarter of 2025, 1,266 people were notified with TB.

This was an increase of 2.1 per cent over the same period in 2024.

Rates of TB increased significantly in the North East (21.2 per cent), also increasing in the East Midlands (8.7 per cent), London (9.6 per cent) and South West (7.7 per cent) over the period.

A rising concern in the international health community is multidrug-resistant TB.

The World Health Organisation has estimated that 400,000 people have this strain of resistant TB and it accounts for 150,00 deaths each year.

Britain had 77 cases of confirmed drug-resistant TB in 2024.

TB is diagnosed with a physical exam, symptom check, and chest X-ray to the lungs.

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