An asylum seeker has been placed in isolation after being diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) at an asylum hotel in Essex.
The migrant has been quarantined as a precaution while health officials monitor the situation. All small boat arrivals are supposed to undergo initial health checks in Dover and across Kent before being moved elsewhere.
After the individual contracted the potentially deadly disease, the local National Health Service stepped in to provide medical care at the hotel, with the Home Office confirming the case to The Sun.
TB cases surged by 13.6% in 2024 compared with the previous year, marking the highest recorded rise in recent years. A total of 5,490 cases were reported in 2024, up from 4,831 in 2023.
Around 82% of infections were recorded in people born outside Britain.
This is not the first outbreak linked to migrant accommodation. In 2023, several TB cases were reported at the controversial MDP Wethersfield site, a former RAF base housing asylum seekers.
The Home Office did not reveal exactly how many migrants were affected.
That same year, an asylum seeker undergoing treatment for latent TB was moved onto the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge.
Earlier, in 2022, a deadly diphtheria outbreak struck the Manston Processing Centre migrant processing site, killing one Iraqi man and infecting 50 others.
Common TB symptoms include a cough lasting more than three weeks, fever, severe night sweats, reduced appetite, and weight loss.
According to the UK Health Security Agency, 1,266 TB cases were recorded in the first quarter of 2025 — a 2.1% rise compared with the same period in 2024.
The sharpest increases were seen in the North East (21.2%), followed by the East Midlands (8.7%), London (9.6%), and the South West (7.7%).
Health experts are also increasingly concerned about multidrug-resistant TB, a dangerous strain that is harder to treat.
The World Health Organization estimates around 400,000 people globally are living with drug-resistant TB, which causes roughly 150,000 deaths every year.
Britain recorded 77 confirmed cases of drug-resistant TB in 2024.
TB is usually diagnosed through physical examinations, symptom checks, and chest X-rays to assess the lungs.
