PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Laura Macfarlane
AU  - Seema Brij
AU  - Fran Child
AU  - Louise Turnbull
AU  - Alice Lee
AU  - Manuela Barrera
AU  - Celia Hogan
TI  - Active and latent TB screening in recently arrived persons from Afghanistan: feasibility and lessons learned
AID  - 10.7861/clinmed.2022-0327
DP  - 2023 Mar 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 164--169
VI  - 23
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/23/2/164.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/23/2/164.full
SO  - Clin Med2023 Mar 01; 23
AB  - We describe an active and latent tuberculosis (TB) screening programme undertaken in Manchester, UK in response to the arrival of a cohort of refugees from Afghanistan. In total, 217 adults and 347 children were offered screening, which involved a symptom questionnaire, Mantoux test or interferon gamma release assay, blood-borne virus screening and a chest X-ray in participants over the age of 11. We found a latent TB infection (LTBI) rate of 15% in adults and 1.5% in children, which is lower than global LTBI estimates. One case of active TB was detected. Screening was undertaken in the hotels where participants were temporarily housed, leading to high participant engagement levels. Attendance rates were almost doubled compared with a previous hospital-based screening programme. Hotel-based screening for TB presented several challenges, including transfer of information and results to secondary care. Understanding these challenges and learning from the programme has helped us refine our screening protocol to optimise migrant TB screening in Manchester in the future.