Testing migrants for key infectious diseases may speed diagnosis, cut risk of spread

Back to the "HIV and Co-Infections News" list

Instituting routine testing of migrants for certain infectious diseases leads to earlier diagnoses and treatment, improving health outcomes and lowering the risk of onward community spread, suggests an observational UK study published late last week in eClinicalMedicine.

The researchers gauged the efficacy of testing migrants for tuberculosis (TB) with an interferon gamma release assay, HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) with surface antigen testing, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) with antibody testing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. The team tested patients when they first registered with general practices (GPs) in Leicester and analyzed test positivity rates, numbers of new diagnoses, and other healthcare data from 2016 to 2019.

“While some testing for infectious disease may take place at the discretion of individual GPs currently, this is neither the norm and typically happens in silo,” senior author Manish Pareek, of the University of Leicester, said in a university news release.

Vast majority completed treatment

Of 4,004 migrants referred for testing, the test positivity rate was 0.5% for HIV, 3.3% for HBV, 0.2% for HCV, and 19.4% for TB. Among the 437 TB patients, 7% had active disease, and 92% had latent infections.

In total, 55% of active TB, 99% of latent TB, 61% of HBV, 35% of HIV, and 83% of HCV infections were new diagnoses. Of these patients, 98% of new latent TB patients were offered drugs to prevent active illness; 94% of them began treatment, and 95% of them completed it. All six newly diagnosed HIV patients, 97% of 71 new HBV patients, and all five new HCV patients completed follow-up.

“Importantly, this study has demonstrated that this testing approach is acceptable to migrants when they register with a GP, and the vast majority who test positive are being successfully treated,” lead author Rebecca Baggaley, PhD, of University College London, said in the release. “The next step is to evaluate its cost effectiveness as a healthcare package and the feasibility of rolling out such testing, when GP clinics’ time and resources are already overstretched.”

By Mary Van Beusekom, MS

 

Source : CIDRAP

Get involved

Are you living with HIV/AIDS? Are you part of a community affected by HIV/AIDS and co-infections? Do you work or volunteer in the field? Are you motivated by our cause and interested to support our work?

Subscribe

Stay in the loop and get all the important EATG updates in your inbox with the EATG newsletter. The HIV & co-infections bulletin is your source of handpicked news from the field arriving regularly to your inbox.