American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume 93, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 747-751

Border lookout: Enhancing tuberculosis control on the United States-Mexico border (Article) (Open Access)

DeSisto C.* , Broussard K. , Escobedo M. , Borntrager D. , Alvarado-Ramy F. , Waterman S.
  • a Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 601 Sunland Park, El Paso, TX 79912, United States
  • b Texas Department of State Health Services, Emerging and Acute Infectious Disease Branch, Austin, TX, United States
  • c Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 601 Sunland Park, El Paso, TX 79912, United States
  • d Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 601 Sunland Park, El Paso, TX 79912, United States
  • e Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 601 Sunland Park, El Paso, TX 79912, United States
  • f Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 601 Sunland Park, El Paso, TX 79912, United States

Abstract

We evaluated the use of federal public health intervention tools known as the Do Not Board and Border Lookout (BL) for detecting and referring infectious or potentially infectious land border travelers with tuberculosis (TB) back to treatment. We used data about the issuance of BL from April 2007 to September 2013 to examine demographics and TB laboratory results for persons on the list (N = 66) and time on the list before being located and achieving noninfectious status. The majority of case-patients were Hispanic and male, with a median age of 39 years. Most were citizens of the United States or Mexico, and 30.3% were undocumented migrants. One-fifth had multidrugresistant TB. Nearly two-thirds of case-patients were located and treated as a result of being placed on the list. However, 25.8% of case-patients, primarily undocumented migrants, remain lost to follow-up and remain on the list. For this highly mobile patient population, the use of this novel federal travel intervention tool facilitated the detection and treatment of infectious TB cases that were lost to follow-up. Copyright © 2015 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

follow up human sex difference middle aged statistics and numerical data multidrug resistant tuberculosis Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant Aged Mexico United States Young Adult Humans migrant Hispanic Adolescent male Tuberculosis, Pulmonary female Aged, 80 and over tuberculosis very elderly Mexican American Article major clinical study adult migration tuberculosis control Emigration and Immigration emporiatrics Mexican Americans
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84943520213&doi=10.4269%2fajtmh.15-0300&partnerID=40&md5=b6e47a3bda6572b83bcca1773dd0cf4c
DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.15-0300
ISSN: 00029637
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English