Infezioni in Medicina
Volume 12, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 245-251

Epidemiology of tuberculosis in immigrant patients hospitalised in Infectious Diseases Units in Italy: Multicentric study [Epidemiologia della tubercolosi tra gli immigrati ricoverati in Italia presso Unità Operative di Malattie Infettive. Uno studio multicentrico] (Article)

Scotto G.* , Saracino A. , El-Hamed I. , Iannace M.D. , Geraci S. , Palumbo E. , Cibelli D.C. , Angarano G.
  • a Unita Operativa di Malat. Infettive, Universita degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy, SIMIT, Italy
  • b Unita Operativa di Malat. Infettive, Universita degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy, SIMIT, Italy
  • c SIMIT, Italy
  • d SIMIT, Italy
  • e SIMIT, Italy
  • f Unita Operativa di Malat. Infettive, Universita degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy
  • g Unita Operativa di Malat. Infettive, Universita degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy
  • h Unita Operativa di Malat. Infettive, Universita degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy

Abstract

In order to retrospectively evaluate the prevalence of immigrant patients affected by active tuberculosis, we analysed the clinical data of 2255 immigrant patients hospitalised during 2002 in ordinary admission or in Day Hospital in 48 Units of Infectious Diseases. In all, 303 patients were affected by active tuberculosis (13.4% of the total immigrant hospitalised patients); 30 patients (9.9%) were also HIV-positive. There was a considerable male gender bias (62.5%); the mean age was 29.7 years; 144 patients were from Africa (47.5%), 72 (23.7%) from Asia, 47 (15.5%) from Eastern Europe and 40 (13.2%) from South America. The clinical variants were: pulmonary (57.7%), lymphnode (15.8%), meningitis (13.8%), intestinal (4.2%), bone (3.3%), pleurical (2.3%), peritoneal (2.3%) and renal (0.6%). We conclude that tuberculosis is a very frequent disease among immigrants, especially of African origin. The high percentage is due to several factors, such as no vaccine prophylaxis and poor, overcrowded living conditions. It is fundamental to focus on the need to provide better health support for all subjects by setting up screening plans to estimate the real incidence of this pathology and ensure medical treatment to prevent the spread of this infection among immigrants and the local host population.

Author Keywords

Immigration tuberculosis Hospitalisation

Index Keywords

tuberculous pleurisy hospital admission hospitalization multicenter study sex ratio human immigration middle aged Asia controlled study intestine tuberculosis tuberculous meningitis Aged Eastern Europe BCG vaccine Human immunodeficiency virus screening tuberculous lymphadenitis epidemiological data Humans lung tuberculosis Adolescent male female South America Aged, 80 and over tuberculosis Infant BCG vaccination Africa Child, Preschool kidney tuberculosis tuberculous peritonitis tuberculous osteomyelitis prevalence Article Retrospective Studies infection prevention major clinical study adult Italy Transients and Migrants Crowding health care delivery Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-13444250980&partnerID=40&md5=1ff325384bc8fddb63d42f65593fca3c
ISSN: 11249390
Cited by: 13
Original Language: Italian