Tuberculosis screening in migrants to the EU/EEA and UK

Extract With great interest we read the article by Zenner et al. [1] on drivers determining tuberculosis screening yield in four European countries. The authors pooled individual-level data from national tuberculosis screening programmes in Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. The dataset includes 1658 tuberculosis cases among 2 107 016 migrants between 2005 and 2018. The authors show that among all types of migrants (students and workers, asylum seekers, individuals on settlement and family visas, and those on working holidays), screening asylum seekers would have the highest yield, followed by screening all other types of migrants from countries that have a tuberculosis incidence of >100 per 100 000 population [1]. Within the group of asylum seekers, the screening yield stagnated above an incidence in country of origin of 100 per 100 000 population, indicating that the adverse circumstances of their journeys or their arrival had a stronger impact on tuberculosis incidence among asylum seekers and refugees than the tuberculosis incidence in their country of origin. The authors advocate to account for tuberculosis-related risk factors as well as to develop regional tuberculosis control recommendations.
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Respiratory infections and tuberculosis Correspondence Source Type: research