In the week of World TB Day, it is a crucial time for us in Oxfordshire to be thinking about this devastating disease.

Figures provided to me by the Health Protection Agency (who provide statistics for the NHS) show that cases of TB in Oxfordshire have approximately doubled over the past 10 years.

This reflects a worrying resurgence of the disease around the world, and due to the current financial crisis, rates of TB infection may increase even further over the next couple of years.

During the economic turmoil in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union, about a decade of advance in the control of TB was lost, increasing mortality rates across the region.

It would be particularly dangerous to allow funding cuts for health services to take hold today, because drug-resistant strains of TB are already threatening the advances we have achieved.

An outbreak of extensively-drug resistant TB in a South African hospital claimed the lives of 98 per cent of patients infected – the strain is considered to be virtually untreatable.

If budgets for TB control and treatment are cut, we are likely to see rates of resistant TB increase, particularly in the developing world.

The World Health Organisation has a proven strategic plan to tackle TB but it was chronically under-funded even before the economic crisis.

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which provides over two-thirds of all TB funding, is already facing a funding gap of $5bn (£3.4bn) over the next two years. TB affects all countries, not just the poorer ones.

Our Secretary of State for Health and Secretary of State for International Development must ensure that funding for TB control, treatment and research is protected around the world to prevent a public health catastrophe.

Julia Modern, Boathouse Mandingo, Mount Place, Oxford