Screening immigrants to detect active or latent tuberculosis (TB) requires a chest X‑ray (CXR) screening before admission to a refugee accomodation, an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) test of subgroups with an increased prevalence of latent TB infections (LTBI) and the utilization of real-time PCR among suspected TB patients. Despite a high “number needed to screen” to reveal a definitive case of TB and despite the limited sensitivity, CXR remains one of the most important screening methods. Mass routine screening of migrants for LTBI without any knowledge of prior exposure to infectious TB cases, especially among children aged below 15 years, is ineffective due to a lower prevalence compared to close contacts and may produce a high number of false positive test results. In cases of clinically or radiologically suspected cases, the Xpert MTB/RIF® recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) enables exclusion of infectious pulmonary TB with a high accuracy and rapid detection of rifampicin resistance as an indicator of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). As a screening procedure the Xpert MTB/RIF® is superior to conventional sputum smear microscopy. © 2017, Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH.

Chest X‑ray emigrants and immigrants Tuberculosis, pulmonary Interferon-gamma release tests Quantitative real time PCR

thorax radiography multidrug resistant tuberculosis latent tuberculosis interferon gamma release assay immigrant sputum smear prevalence sputum cytodiagnosis screening Article human real time polymerase chain reaction