Tuberculosis case finding based on symptom screening among immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Rome

Background In Italy the proportion of cases of tuberculosis in persons originating from high-prevalence countries has been increasing in the last decade. We designed a study to assess adherence to and yield of a tuberculosis screening programme based on symptom screening conducted at primary care ce...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC Public Health Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 872 - 19 pages
Main Authors: Sañé Schepisi, Monica, Gualano, Gina, Fellus, Claudia, Bevilacqua, Nazario, Vecchi, Marco, Piselli, Pierluca, Battagin, Giuliana, Silvestrini, Giulia, Attanasio, Andrea, Vela, Alberto, Rocca, Giorgia, Rinaldi, Alessandro, Benedetti, Pietro, Geraci, Salvatore, Lauria, Francesco Nicola, Girardi, Enrico
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Springer Science and Business Media LLC 22.09.2013
BioMed Central
BioMed Central Ltd
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Adult
Africa South of the Sahara
Africa South of the Sahara - ethnology
Biostatistics
Biostatistics and methods
Control
Diagnosis
Environmental Health
Epidemiology
Female
Health aspects
Health services
Humans
Immigrants
Infectious diseases
Investigations
Male
Mass Screening
Mass Screening - methods
Medical screening
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Migrants
Mycobacterium
Prevalence
Preventive Health Services
Primary care
Public Health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Questionnaires
Refugees
Research Article
Risk factors
Rome
Rome - epidemiology
Statistical analysis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis - diagnosis
Tuberculosis - epidemiology
Tuberculosis - prevention & control
Vaccine
Africa South of the Sahara
Rome
Italy
Rome Italy
Active case finding
Access to care
Migrants
Tuberculosis
Adherence to screening
ISSN:1471-2458, 1471-2458
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background In Italy the proportion of cases of tuberculosis in persons originating from high-prevalence countries has been increasing in the last decade. We designed a study to assess adherence to and yield of a tuberculosis screening programme based on symptom screening conducted at primary care centres for regular and irregular immigrants and refugees/asylum seekers. Methods Presence of symptoms suggestive of active tuberculosis was investigated by verbal screening in migrants presenting for any medical condition to 3 free primary care centres in the province of Rome. Individuals reporting at least one symptom were referred to a tuberculosis clinic for diagnostic workup. Results Among 2142 migrants enrolled, 254 (11.9%) reported at least one symptom suggestive of active tuberculosis and 176 were referred to the tuberculosis clinic. Of them, 80 (45.4%) did not present for diagnostic evaluation. Tuberculosis was diagnosed in 7 individuals representing 0.33% of those screened and 7.3% of those evaluated for tuberculosis. Conclusion The overall yield of this intervention was in the range reported for other tuberculosis screening programmes for migrants, although we recorded an unsatisfactory adherence to diagnostic workup. Possible advantages of this intervention include low cost and reduced burden of medical procedures for the screened population. Further evaluation of this approach appears to be warranted.
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ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/1471-2458-13-872