Multicultural Brussels Has 3-4 Times More Tuberculosis Than Rest of Belgium

According to figures from Brussels ministers Alain Maron and Elke Van den Brandt, the Belgian capital has three to four times more new cases of tuberculosis than the rest of the country, with asylum seekers especially affected.

Belgium’s average rate of the disease is 8.6 per 100,000 people but in Brussels, the rate is 29.5 cases per 100,000, with the city representing 36 per cent of all new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country that year. The numbers have been steadily rising since 2014.

The data came at the request of MP Bianca Debaets, a member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD-V), who told the media: “Of course, an urban context always increases the risk of certain diseases, but the fact that a third of the cases reported in Belgium are concentrated in Brussels is significant.”

Ms Debaets noted the high prevalence of the disease among asylum seekers living in the capital, saying: “Between July 2017 and May 2019, 45 cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed among refugees in Maximilian Park.”

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