TB scare shuts down Kingston police custody suite

3:15pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in

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a tuberculosis scare forced the closure of Kingston police custody desk last night.

Suspects were diverted to stations in Wimbledon and Richmond as the custody desk shut for an hour to be scrubbed down when a health check revealed a suspect was carrying the potentially killer disease.

it is unknown at this moment whether police officers have been screened for the disease since the discovery.

Tuberculosis, known as TB, is a passed on through coughs or sneezes with symptoms including a persistent cough, weight loss and blood in phlegm or spit.

People suffering two or three of these symptoms for more than three weeks are advised to go to their doctor.

The disease can be treated with a six-month course of antibiotics.

Britain is now the only western European country with rising rates of tuberculosis with more than 9,000 cases now diagnosed annually, according to research carried out in 2010.

four in 10 cases are diagnosed within London, with cases rising by nearly 50 per cent in the last 12 years, from 2,309 to 3,450.

Children in the borough were screened for tuberculosis in March 2010, when a new Malden school pupil was struck down with the disease.

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