A 48-year-old woman has died in hospital after being admitted to hospital with suspected tuberculosis when she returned from a visit to India.

Zubida Ahmed, of Crompton Place, Blackburn, was admitted to Blackburn Royal Infirmary on April 2 but her condition continued to deteriorate and she died on Saturday.

A post mortem examination has been carried out and tissue samples taken for further examination. An inquest in Blackburn was opened and adjourned until June 25.

Tuberculosis is still a relatively rare disease in the UK, but it has been on the increase in recent years, with East Lancashire having the 18th highest rate in the country.

Today, the World Health Organisation believes TB kills around 2 million people each year worldwide.

Although deaths from TB are rare in England and Wales, figures from the Government's public health laboratory show there were just under 400 deaths in 1998, and around 6,000 cases of the disease.

Steps have been taken by the East Lancashire wide TB and meningitis team, and numbers of cases have come down steadily - especially among children, with 31 notified cases in 1980, and none last year.