Screening for Infectious Diseases among Newly Arrived Migrants in EU/EEA Countries—Varying Practices but Consensus on the Utility of Screening

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Tommi Kärki²  Christian Napoli²  Flavia Riccardo²  Massimo Fabiani²  Maria Grazia Dente²  Manuel Carballo³  Teymur Noori¹  Silvia Declich² 

[1] European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Tomtebodavägen 11a, 171 83 Stockholm, Sweden; E-Mail:;National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy; E-Mails:;International Centre for Migration, Health and Development (ICMHD), Route du Nant d’Avril 11, CH–1214 Geneva, Switzerland; E-Mail:

关键词: screening;    immigration;    refugees;    migrants;    infectious diseases;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph111011004

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Screening is one possible tool for monitoring infectious diseases among migrants. However, there is limited information on screening programmes targeted for newly arrived migrants in EU/EEA countries. Our aim was to investigate the implementation, practices and usefulness of these programmes. We conducted a survey among country experts from EU/EEA countries and Switzerland, asking whether their countries had implemented screening programmes. We also estimated the association between the implementation of these programmes and the rate of asylum-seekers in the population. Of the countries, 16 (59%) had implemented screening programmes and 15 (56%) had national guidelines. The rate of asylum-seekers was associated with implementation of screening programmes (p = 0.014). Screening was performed most often for tuberculosis; most commonly on holding level, and was targeted to specific migrant groups in over half of the countries performing screening. Twenty-five of all the country experts (96%) considered screening among migrants useful, and 24 (92%) would welcome EU level guidelines for screening. The implementation of screening programmes varied, and the practices were different among countries. Our survey suggests, that establishing EU level guidelines for screening would be useful, although they would have to take into account differences between individual countries.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.