Tuberculosis and migrants in the local health unit of Viterbo

Abstract

Tuberculosis is still considered a worldwide health problem. In recent years, the stable decrease of tuberculosis notification in Europe is probably due to a particular underlying epidemiological trend: increase of tuberculosis notification in foreign born people living in low endemic countries, and a proportional decrease in the native population. This trend exists also in Italy, where tuberculosis incidence is low (5.2/100.000 inhabitants). Considering the high number of migrants in Viterbo Province after the humanitarian operation“Mare Nostrum”, we analyzed the local health unit (ASL) database to calculate tuberculosis notifications in this area. During the period 2013-2014, Viterbo Province data were similar to European data. Data on age, gender, and nationality are provided and discussed. It is noteworthy the identification of two cases in Nigerian patients that triggered a difficult epidemiological investigation due to the high number of people (migrants, social and healthcare workers) with whom they came into contact (174) and the problems in locating migrants moved to other Italian regions, thus highlighting the need for a constantly updated record of the migrant-hosting facilities.

Keywords

• Tuberculosis
• Migrants
• Mare Nostrum
• Epidemiology