Domestic impact of tuberculosis screening among new immigrants to Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

All Canadian immigrants undergo screening for tuberculosis (TB) before immigration, and selected immigrants must undergo postimmigration surveillance for the disease. We sought to quantify the domestic health impact of screening for TB in all new immigrants and to identify mechanisms to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of this screening.

Methods

We linked preimmigration medical examination records from 944,375 immigrants who settled in Ontario between 2002 and 2011 to active TB reporting data in Ontario between 2002 and 2011. Using a retrospective cohort study design, we measured birth country-specific rates of active TB detected through preimmigration screening and postimmigration surveillance. We then quantified the proportion of active TB cases among reside

SUBMITTER: Khan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4627893 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature