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. 2020 Jul-Aug:36:101611.
doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101611. Epub 2020 Feb 29.

Delivering multi-disease screening to migrants for latent TB and blood-borne viruses in an emergency department setting: A feasibility study

Sally Hargreaves  1 , Laura B Nellums  2 , Catherine Johnson  3 , Jacob Goldberg  3 , Panagiotis Pantelidis  4 , Asif Rahman  4 , Jon S Friedland FMedSci  5
Affiliations

Delivering multi-disease screening to migrants for latent TB and blood-borne viruses in an emergency department setting: A feasibility study

Sally Hargreaves et al. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Background: Screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in migrants is important for elimination of tuberculosis in low-incidence countries, alongside the need to detect blood-borne infections to align with new guidelines on migrant screening for multiple infections in European countries. However, feasibility needs to be better understood.

Methods: We did a feasibility study to test an innovative screening model offering combined testing for LTBI (QuantiFERON), HIV, hepatitis B/C in a UK emergency department, with two year follow-up.

Results: 96 economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from 43 countries were screened (46 [47.9%] women; mean age 35.2 years [SD 11.7; range 18-73]; mean time in the UK 4.8 years [SD 3.2; range 0-10]). 14 migrants (14.6%) tested positive for LTBI alongside HIV [1], hepatitis B [2], and hepatitis C [1] Of migrants with LTBI, 5 (35.7%) were successfully engaged in treatment. 74 (77.1%) migrants reported no previous screening since migrating to the UK.

Conclusion: Multi-disease screening in this setting is feasible and merits being further tested in larger-scale studies. However, greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring successful treatment outcomes. We identified major gaps in current screening provision; most migrants had been offered no prior screening despite several years since migration, which holds relevance to policy and practice in the UK and other European countries.

Keywords: Europe; HIV; Health-service delivery; Hepatitis; LTBI; Latent TB; Migrant; Multi-disease screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Screening pathways for recruited migrant patients (n = 96).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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