Lavender M
North Tyneside Health Authority, Newcastle upon Tyne.
J Public Health Med. 1997 Sep;19(3):320-3. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubmed.a024637.
Successive national guidelines on the control of tuberculosis in the United Kingdom have included recommendations for screening immigrants coming from countries with a high prevalence of tuberculosis. As there has been only one other study on the process and outcome of screening immigrants at a district level the aim of this study was to assess the contribution of screening immigrants to the control of tuberculosis in Newcastle.
The Port of Arrival (POA) forms were used to identify all new immigrants for screening in Newcastle during 1993. The Family Health Services Authority (FHSA) register was used to identify additional new immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. For all new immigrants identified by the POA forms and FHSA register, hospital and practice records were reviewed for evidence of screening and its outcome up to the end of 1994.
There were 252 POA forms in 1993, 100 of which were for immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. This represents less than a third of all new immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. Of all immigrants identified by POA forms, 99 (39 per cent) had been screened. This resulted in the detection of one active case of tuberculosis.
The POA system alone is inadequate for identifying immigrants for screening. The published evidence on screening immigrants for tuberculosis suggests that the system does not work well and the yield of new cases is low. To assess the effectiveness of screening immigrants a national audit is needed.
英国关于结核病控制的一系列国家指南都包含对来自结核病高流行国家的移民进行筛查的建议。由于此前仅有另一项关于地区层面移民筛查过程及结果的研究，本研究旨在评估在纽卡斯尔对移民进行筛查对结核病控制的贡献。
使用抵达港（POA）表格来识别1993年在纽卡斯尔接受筛查的所有新移民。利用家庭健康服务管理局（FHSA）登记册来识别来自印度次大陆的其他新移民。对于通过POA表格和FHSA登记册识别出的所有新移民，查阅医院和诊疗记录，以获取截至1994年底的筛查证据及其结果。
1993年有252份POA表格，其中100份是针对来自印度次大陆的移民。这不到来自印度次大陆所有新移民的三分之一。在通过POA表格识别出的所有移民中，99人（39%）接受了筛查。这导致发现了1例活动性结核病病例。
仅靠POA系统不足以识别需要筛查的移民。已发表的关于对移民进行结核病筛查的证据表明该系统效果不佳，新病例检出率低。为评估对移民进行筛查的有效性，需要进行全国性审计。
