Lessons learnt from TB screening in closed immigration centres in Italy

Between June 2012 and December 2013 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) launched a pilot project with the aim of testing a strategy for improving timely diagnosis of active pulmonary TB among migrants hosted in four centres of identification and expulsion (CIE) in Italy. This is a descriptive study. For active TB case finding MSF used an active symptom screening approach among migrants at admission in four CIE’s. It was found that TB screening with symptom screening questionnaires of migrants at admission in closed centres is feasible. However, to improve the yield, follow-up of patients with symptoms or signs suggestive for TB needs to be improved.