title: [Migration and infectious disease surveillance in Germany: Analyses of Tuberculosis, HIV and Syphilis surveillance data].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Migration is an important factor impacting on infectious disease epidemiology. The timely identification of groups at risk and prevention needs resulting from migration is indispensable to adequately design and implement public health measures. It remains to be assessed to which extent surveillance data for notifiable diseases can directly generate meaningful migration-specific information.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objectives of this study are to review indicators of migration background utilized in the German infectious disease surveillance, as well as to assess their limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe the indicators of migration used for mandatorily notifiable diseases and pathogens and their legal basis in the Protection against Infection Act and conduct a descriptive analysis of surveillance data for tuberculosis (TB), HIV and syphilis from 2002-2013.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Migration status is collected only for five infectious diseases and operationalization varies. For TB (country of birth) and HIV (country of origin) a foreign origin was more frequent than for syphilis (country of origin); namely 46, 30 and 13% of cases with available information, respectively. In all three examples, there are indications of risk profiles that are specific for particular groups of migrants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A standardization of indicators of migration in infectious disease surveillance is important to enhance data comparability between diseases and pathogens as well as across countries. Routine surveillance already partly allows migration sensitive analyses, yet further research is needed to guide interpretation of the complex relationship between migration and infectious diseases and plan public health measures adequately.
authors: Abteilung für Infektionsepidemiologie, Robert Koch-Institut, Seestraße 10, 13353, Berlin, Deutschland, KuehneAn@rki.de.
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Kuehne
authors: Lena
authors: L
authors: Fiebig
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Jansen
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: Koschollek
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Santos-Hövener
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000208:ethnology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013587:Syphilis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D055815:Young Adult