O'Meara, Mary2013-01-012013-01-012007-09http://hdl.handle.net/10147/263892Tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable infectious disease which, if not controlled, has major public health implications. TB remains a leading infectious cause of death globally, with almost two million deaths per year. Currently, one-third of the world's population is infected with TB. In 1991,640 TB cases were notified in Ireland. The national trend in TB notifications was downward until 2003, when 407 TB cases were notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Data for Ireland for 2004 and 2005 show that TB notifications are increasing. Four hundred and sixty one TB cases were notified (crude rate11.81l 00,000 population) in 2005. The proportion of TB cases notified amongst non-Irish nationals has risen from 8.3% of notified cases in 1998 to almost one-third of notified cases in 2005. To date no case of extensively-drug resistant TB has been recorded in Ireland but cases of multi-drug resistant TB have been recorded on an almost annual basis since 1999.enTUBERCULOSISCOMMUNICABLE DISEASEEPIDEMIOLOGYThesis