Health, Social Care and Security

Virendra Sharma Excerpts

Wednesday 28th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak in this debate, and I congratulate you on being returned to your position. I thank the people of my constituency of Ealing, Southall for returning me to the House of Commons with an increased majority. It is a pleasure to follow so many illustrious Members. I have enjoyed listening to their speeches and contributions.

I want to remind hon. Members on both sides of the House of two important intertwined topics that in the past have secured important cross-party support, but sadly last week were not mentioned in the Queen’s Speech. While there is still much work to do on ensuring effective treatment—we can dream of eradication—tuberculosis is normally spoken of in the House in an international context, but I want to talk about the prevalence of TB and antimicrobial resistance in this country, and the lives that that ruins.

Many believe TB has been eradicated here. That is not the case, and there are thousands of cases annually in the UK. Some 40% of those cases occur in London, and most affect people born outside the UK. It is a disease that hurts the least well-off because of poor housing, overcrowding and poor health services. They are seven times more likely than the better-off to contract TB.

International and British efforts have been ineffective in developing modern treatments, and there is still no effective vaccine for adolescents and adults. The current treatments are seriously deficient, they require six-month pill regimens, the treatment is painful and patients can often develop side effects, such as temporary paralysis, which deter them from completing the course. That exacerbates the issue of antibiotic resistance, a serious problem in this country across the whole health sector.

Currently, treatment for drug-resistant TB involves a gruelling two-year course of 14,000 pills—they can have severe side-effects, including permanent deafness—as well as eight months of intravenous injections. It is little wonder that less than half of those who start treatment complete the course. But it is not just under those trying circumstances that the completion rates for courses of antibiotics are unacceptably high. Too often, patients will feel better and not quite finish their course of antibiotics. That is driving the epidemic of resistance, a horrible and present threat to the way we do healthcare in this country. I hope that the Government will look at how we can ensure that patients are properly educated about the treatment they are taking.

While internationally we are focused on Brexit, I hope that the Government can take steps to ensure that we are not ignoring this serious issue; to ensure that no more lives are lost to this ignored killer; and to reassure thousands undergoing painful and dangerous treatments daily that we will help.