Objectives During the migrant crisis in 2015, Germany was the largest single recipient of new asylum seekers in Europe. The German asylum law requires a screening examination for certain infectious diseases in asylum seekers upon arrival. The aim of this work was to analyse the rate of certain infectious diseases among asylum seekers screened at a reception centre in Southern Germany. Study design Retrospective medical record review. Methods Medical records of 2602 asylum seekers screened by a local public health authority in Germany in 2015 were systematically analysed. Results The majority of screened subjects came from Afghanistan and Syria. The mean age was 22.1 (±12.0) years. The majority of subjects were male (75.4%). Most individuals were of normal weight or overweight, more subjects were obese than underweight. A total of 78 (3.9%) individuals were infected with hepatitis B and eight (0.4%) with HIV. In 31 cases, chest radiographs suggested active tuberculosis (1.6%), which was confirmed in four cases (0.2%). The physical examination uncovered 44 (1.7%) cases of scabies, nine (0.3%) cases of lice, eight (0.3%) of upper respiratory tract infections, two (0.1%) of varicella and 13 (0.5%) of other skin infections. Conclusions In the majority of subjects none of the screened infectious diseases were found. No evidence was found that the overall prevalence of certain infectious diseases screened for in the present analysis was considerably higher than in previous migration studies. © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health

Screening Asylum seekers Germany Refugees Infectious diseases

medical record review Afghanistan Germany refugee Human immunodeficiency virus infection mass screening Syrian Arab Republic infectious disease upper respiratory tract infection human infection rate HIV test Communicable Diseases Refugees pediculosis middle aged statistics and numerical data controlled study obesity chickenpox feces analysis screening test ethnology groups by age Human immunodeficiency virus Phthiraptera asylum seeker Young Adult school child Humans Adolescent male female tuberculosis Infant newborn prevalence hepatitis Article scabies Retrospective Studies disease prevalence underweight communicable disease adult major clinical study Syria thorax radiography chemiluminescence immunoassay infection retrospective study skin infection body mass hepatitis B Physical Examination hepatitis B core antibody public health Child