Doctors have been placed on a higher level of alert in a bid to prevent the number of TB cases on the Island escalating.

Dr. Brenda Davidson, senior medical officer at the Department of Health, confirmed she had asked for awareness among health officials to be stepped up ? amid a rise in skin tests indicating suspected tuberculosis.

A report to physicians from the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit said the department has been made aware of a hike in the number of positive skin tests, which provide evidence of previous exposure to TB.

So far this year there have been eleven cases of suspected pulmonary TB, the report states, ten of which were imported from abroad.

Dr. Davidson confirmed there had been two active cases of full blown TB in Bermuda this year, however, she stressed these were not serious cases and the patients did not require hospital treatment.

?That?s not out of line for Bermuda,? she told . ?We usually see one or two cases a year and it does not put us into the high incidence group compared with other areas of the world.?

She continued: ?A lot of people can be exposed to TB, but very few get the disease. We try and track people who have been exposed at some point in their lives and decide if they need to be treated.

?It can lie latent for quite a while but might not ever come up.?

The Government report tells doctors: ?A major public health effort to reduce the number of cases of TB and thus prevent the spread of the disease is treatment of persons with positive skin tests.

?The Department of Health is therefore reminding physicians to be aware of the possibility of latent TB infection or active TB when assessing patients.?

Dr. Davidson said news of the extra surveillance and increased screening for at risk patients did not mean there was a ?public health emergency?.

But the health chief added: ?We have increased levels of testing and plan to continue doing so. It?s an ongoing programme, certainly for the next year or so.?

She said the move ? which was announced to the Island?s 60-plus strong team of physicians last week ? came in the wake of the two active cases and amid world-wide concerns that TB levels were on the rise, and that some cases of the disease might be resistant to medication.

Since 2003, the senior medical officer, said there had been seven suspected cases of active TB.

The Government report to doctors also said that all individuals with a positive PPD (skin) test should receive a physical examination, chest X-ray and routine blood work, including HIV-testing, and follow-up checks.