The only thing that suggested there was something wrong with Tim was that he was losing a fair amount of weight. So when routine tests showed he had tuberculosis, one of the biggest infectious killers, he was pretty nonplussed.

He didn't have any of the other symptoms, like night sweats or a racking, bloody cough. But follow-up scans in October showed the trademark TB hole in his lung, and three weeks in quarantine and six months on incredibly strong antiobiotics followed.

It was revealed this week that various Kingston University students will be following the same fate. Three have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and over a dozen more are being tested.

TB is one of the top three deadliest diseases in the world. The World Health Organisation have declared it a global emergency, and estimated that a whopping one third of the world's population is infected with the disease. 

And it’s not just abroad. Tuberculosis has been on the rise in the UK since 1987, and increased by more than 80 per cent in London over the last decade.

"If one of my uni friends had been positive then my whole year would have to be tested.”

Tim Cooper is a student in London, and he shed some light on the damage the disease causes: “Your body builds a wall around the place where the TB is and you end up having almost this Swiss cheese hole in your lung."

He spent the first three weeks quarantined in his flat, which he shares with a friend from Kingston Uni, and had to cross his fingers that none of his friends or family had caught the disease from him.

He said: “They told me that if one person from your closest contacts also comes back as having active TB then there's a ripple effect and more people have to be tested.

"If one of my uni friends had been positive then my whole year would have to be tested.” 

Health officials at Kingston are poised to act. At the moment only 16 students are being screened, but if one of them comes back as infected, then that broadens the circle of possible infection out further. A spokesperson for the university was reassuring: “Although a number of people may be tested as a precaution, it is very unusual for further, related cases to be diagnosed.”

"you end up having this Swiss cheese hole in your lung"

TB requires close, prolonged and frequent contact for it to be passed on. For such a widespread and deadly disease, it is quite difficult to catch. TB of the lungs is largely only transmitted through the air, and not through, say, kissing or sharing someone’s drink.

It is not the case that if someone sneezes on you in a lift, you automatically have it. More that they need to be coughing or sneezing next to you for several hours in the library. "The greatest risk of spread is to people who live in the same household as a person with the disease," according to Dr Barry Walsh, who organised the screenings with the University and Kingston Hospital. That's because TB bacteria can survive for a long time, hanging around in the air or lying dormant on furniture.

Tim explained that what makes tuberculosis such a pernicious disease is its ability to alter the body's immune system cells and live inside them. "The irony is that the body’s natural response helps the TB along which is why you have to take such strong antibiotics. The body cannot deal with it alone,” he said.

He has been taking a cocktail of super-strong antibiotics every day for the past six months. "The drugs you take are toxic on your liver and rule out any fun stuff like hardcore boozing. If you do hit it hard and knacker your liver, you can end up with hepatitis or jaundice."

They also have the unwanted side effect of turning your tears, saliva and even urine a reddish-orange colour.

So how did his friends react to him having the disease and a bright orange tongue? "I was called TB Tim, Timberculosis. One guy who was a big fan of Dickens called me Tiny Tim."

For many TB is something trapped in history books and Victorian novels. Tessa Marshall from the charity TB Alert explained:  “People in this country see tuberculosis as a disease of the past. If they do have any understanding of it, it is from films or old books or historical figures who have died from it. It is most certainly still around, although it is curable.”

So it may not be as deadly in the UK anymore, but it is still debilitating. Tim found this out, and three Kingston students, maybe more, are about to.