title: [Epidemiology of tuberculosis in immigrant patients hospitalised in Infectious Diseases Units in Italy: multicentric study].
abstract: In order to retrospectively evaluate the prevalence of immigrant patients affected by active tuberculosis, we analysed the clinical data of 2255 immigrant patients hospitalised during 2002 in ordinary admission or in Day Hospital in 48 Clinics of Infectious Diseases. In all, 303 patients were affected by active tuberculosis (13.4% of the total immigrant hospitalised patients); 30 patients (9.9%) were also HIV-positive. There was a considerable male gender bias (62.5%); the mean age was 29.7 years; 144 patients were from Africa (47.5%), 72 (23.7%) from Asia, 47 (15.5%) from eastern Europe and 40 (13.2%) from South America. The clinical variants were: pulmonary (57.7%), lymph node (15.8%), meningitis (13.8%), intestinal (4.2%), bone (3.3%), pleurical (2.3%), peritoneal (2.3%) and renal (0.6%). We conclude that tuberculosis is a very frequent disease among immigrants, especially of African origin. The high percentage is due to several factors, such as no vaccine prophylaxis and poor, overcrowded living conditions. It is fundamental to focus on the need to provide better health support for all subjects by setting up screening plans to estimate the real incidence of this pathology and ensure medical treatment to prevent the spread of this infection among immigrants and the local host population.
authors.affiliation: Unità Operativa di Malattie Infettive, Università degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scotto
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saracino
authors.forename: Issa
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: El-Hamed
authors.forename: Maria Donata
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Iannece
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geraci
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.forename: Donatella Concetta
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Cibelli
authors.forename: Gioacchino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Angarano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014171:Transients and Migrants; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology*