Screening of migrants for tuberculosis identifies patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis but is not sufficient

Abstract A cluster of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among migrants is described by Walker et al. in their manuscript accepted for publication in Lancet Infectious Diseases. As most European countries have entry screening for tuberculosis (active case finding) for certain categories of migrants, we evaluated whether cases were identified by entry screening and if not, why not. Our assessment shows that 27 of 36 (75%) patients were screened for TB. Of these, 13 (50%) were diagnosed as a result of the screening. Most patients were eventually diagnosed with MDR-TB within months of entry in the country. We conclude that systematic screening of migrants at entry can identify tuberculosis but only captures active TB at entry and thus access for migrants to the health system in the host countries should be ensured to allow early detection and treatment of cases and avoid further spread.