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March 24, 2017 - World Tuberculosis Day

Tuberculosis affects several million people worldwide every year. To mark World Tuberculosis Day, Santé publique France is publishing a special issue of the weekly epidemiological bulletin and new reporting data.

Key Figures for 2015, France

• The steady decline observed over the past several years continued in 2015 (4,741 cases, or 7.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 4,827 cases and 7.3 per 100,000 in 2014).

• Reporting rates for the disease remain higher in French Guiana (18.3 per 100,000), in the Île-de-France region (14.5 per 100,000), and in Mayotte (25.9 per 100,000), as in previous years.

• Persistent disparities, both in terms of population and geography, are observed through particularly high reported rates among people experiencing homelessness (167 cases per 100,000) and those born abroad (35 cases per 100,000).

• The latest BCG vaccination coverage data show high and stable levels in Île-de-France and French Guiana (approximately 80% by 9 months of age) but clearly insufficient levels in metropolitan France outside Île-de-France (<50% among children at risk of tuberculosis followed by private practitioners). This decline in vaccination coverage observed since 2006 has not, to date, had an impact on the epidemiology of childhood tuberculosis beyond what was expected. The number of tuberculosis cases among children under 10 years of age has indeed remained stable, and the number of severe cases in this age group does not exceed the number predicted at the time of the change in BCG vaccination policy.

In the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, the number of cases decreased from 154 in 2014 to 137 in 2015, with a regional incidence of 4.9 per 100,000, below the national incidence. At the departmental level, these figures vary, ranging from a minimum of 5 cases and an incidence of 1.9 per 100,000 in the Jura to a maximum of 39 cases and 7.3 per 100,000 in the Doubs, the only one of the region’s eight departments to slightly exceed the national incidence this year.