Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening for latent tuberculosis among migrants in the EU/EEA
Citation: Greenaway C, Pareek M, Abou Chakra CN, et al. The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening for latent tuberculosis among migrants in the EU/EEA: a systematic review. Eurosurveillance. 2018;23(14):17-00543.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
What is this? Addressing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among migrants in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) is critical to promote their health and achieve regional tuberculosis (TB) elimination goals. In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles that focused on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of LTBI screening programmes for migrants living in the EU/EEA. They restricted their searches to articles published in French or English between 1 January 2005 to 12 May 2016. They included seven systematic reviews which included articles providing evidence for screening and a total of 16 individual studies detailing economic evidence for LTBI.
What was found: Migrant-focused LTBI screening programmes may be effective and cost-effective if they are highly targeted and well implemented. Migrants encounter several barriers in accessing healthcare and consequently treatment initiation and completion.
The effectiveness of LTBI programmes is limited by the large pool of migrants with LTBI, poorly predictive tests, long treatments and challenges ensuring high screening uptake and treatment completion.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that there is a need for improved diagnostic tests, optimized treatment regimens, and targeted cost-effective interventions to enhance screening uptake and treatment completion among migrants. Addressing barriers at both, the patient and provider level, will be required to strengthen LTBI care cascade and to ensure individual and public health benefits of LBTI programmes.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity.
This summary was prepared by Riwa Deghaim, checked by Sneha Bhadti, and finalized by Anne-Marie Glenny.