Canada’s current practice of screening all newly arriving immigrants for tuberculosis (TB) is inefficient according to new research. The authors believe screening should focus only on immigrants arriving from countries with high TB rates.
Researchers found that immigrants arriving in Ontario between 2002 and 2011 came from 214 countries, however all cases of active TB detected came from 35 countries. Of the 35 countries of origin showing active TB, six countries made up 87.3 per cent of the cases; Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam. In Canada all immigrants are screened for contagious forms of TB by chest X-ray before emigrating, and some receive follow-up surveillance after settling.
Researchers suggest that immigrants from the countries with the lowest rates of TB – the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and some of Western Europe – do not need screening for TB at all.
Original research paper published in the CMAJ on September 28, 2015.
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