HUNDREDS of York Hospital patients will be getting a nasty shock today.

They will be receiving letters informing them they could be at risk of having TB.

A nurse who worked on Ward 16 has been diagnosed with the condition.

Every patient who has been through the ward since last September is now being contacted to say there is a small chance they could have been infected.

If you are one of those patients, the first thing we would say to you is: don't panic.

TB, or tuberculosis, is a nasty condition. In Victorian times, when it was known as consumption, it was a major killer.

But the risk of you having it is very small - infection requires "close and lengthy contact" with someone who already has the disease. And with today's medicines, TB is now very treatable.

Nevertheless, to find it rearing its ugly head again is worrying.

The use of modern medicines meant that, in the UK, it was virtually eradicated.

But while the number of cases went down, the disease never went away. Recently, it has been on the increase.

York Hospital is not really to blame for what has happened.

It has acted promptly by writing to patients as soon as the nurse's condition was diagnosed.

To reduce the risk of the disease spreading, hospital bosses are asking 80 patients who spent two weeks or more on the ward to come in for a chest x-ray.

Another 420-odd patients are simply being asked to watch out for symptoms.

The most common include a persistent cough, loss of weight, night sweats and coughing up blood.

If you have received one of these letters and notice any of these symptoms, see your doctor immediately.

TB is NOT a killer any more. But we don't want it to spread if that can be avoided.