The impact of Greece's childhood tuberculosis screening programme on the epidemiological indexes in the greater Athens area.
METHODS
A hospital referral centre for childhood tuberculosis in Athens.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of the screening programme implemented for childhood tuberculosis, through its impact on the epidemiological index.


METHODS
In Greece, tuberculosis has been systematically screened for in children since 1991 using the tuberculin skin test. The epidemiological and clinical profiles of all tuberculous children who attended the TB clinic were compared. The children were divided into those who attended in 1982-1990 and those who did so in 1991-1999.


RESULTS
A total of 1122 TB patients were screened. In the second period there was an increase in numbers of immigrant children (3% vs. 28%, P = 0.0001), the rate of extra-pulmonary TB decreased (16% vs. 7.6%, P = 0.0001), patients identified by the screening programme increased (19% vs. 57%, P = 0.0001) and the number of symptomatic children fell (51% vs. 16%, P = 0.0001). The proportion of children who failed to attend for regular follow-up was lower during the second period (20% vs. 7%, P = 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that the screening programme applied in Greece during the last decade has contributed to the early identification of tuberculosis, and the limitation of symptomatic patients and extrapulmonary TB cases.
Spyridis
P
P
2nd Department of Pediatrics, P&A Kyriakou Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece. niksp@otenet.gr
Tsolia
M
M
Gelesme
A
A
Moustaki
M
M
Spyridis
N
N
Sinaniotis
C
C
Karpathios
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy