title: Screening for infectious diseases among newly arrived migrants in EU/EEA countries--varying practices but consensus on the utility of screening.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. tommi.karki@iss.it.
authors.forename: Tommi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kärki
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. christian.napoli@iss.it.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Napoli
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. flavia.riccardo@iss.it.
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Riccardo
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. massimo.fabiani@iss.it.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabiani
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. mariagrazia.dente@iss.it.
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Dente
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Migration, Health and Development (ICMHD), Route du Nant d'Avril 11, CH-1214 Geneva, Switzerland. mcarballo@icmhd.ch.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carballo
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Tomtebodavägen 11a, 171 83 Stockholm, Sweden. teymur.noori@ecdc.europa.eu.
authors.forename: Teymur
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Noori
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS), viale Regina Elena, 299-00161 Rome, Italy. silvia.declich@iss.it.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Declich
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003625:Data Collection; D005060:Europe; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D012036:Refugees; D014171:Transients and Migrants; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control