The rate of tuberculosis is three times higher among Irish Travellers compared to white Irish-born people, a new study has revealed.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body such as the glands. Symptoms can include fever, coughing, weight loss and blood in the phlegm.

According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), cases of the disease have been declining steadily in Ireland since the mid-20th century. There were nearly 7,000 cases a year in the early 1950s, but in recent years, only a few hundred cases per year have been notified. This is largely due to the availability of the BCG vaccine, which protects against the disease.

Researchers from the HPSC, Trinity College Dublin and the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre investigated for the first time the incidence of the disease among Irish Travellers. The Travellers were monitored over a 12-year period, from 2002 to 2013.

The researchers found that the number of new cases of TB in any given year was three times higher among Travellers than the white Irish-born population.

Furthermore, while the average age of a white-born Irish person with TB was 49 years, the average age of a Traveller with TB was just 26.

According to the study's lead author, Dr Ronan O'Toole of Trinity College Dublin, these findings ‘underline a continuation in disparities in health outcomes for Irish Travellers compared to the general population'.

"Another study from 2014 found a higher incidence rate of invasive meningococcal disease in Irish Travellers. And the All Ireland Traveller Health Study published in 2010 determined that infant mortality rates are approximately 3.5 times higher, and that life expectancy at birth is more than 10 years lower in Irish Travellers compared to the national average," he said.

He pointed out that more research into the specific risk factors associated with TB and other communicable diseases among Travellers is now required.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Epidemiology & Infection.