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The effect of migration within the European Union/European Economic Area on the distribution of tuberculosis, 2007 to 2013
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsVahur Hollovahur.hollo ecdc.europa.eu
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Citation style for this article: . The effect of migration within the European Union/European Economic Area on the distribution of tuberculosis, 2007 to 2013. Euro Surveill. 2016;21(12):pii=30171. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.12.30171 Received: 10 Mar 2015; Accepted: 04 Jan 2016
Abstract
Immigration from tuberculosis (TB) high-incidence countries is known to contribute notably to the TB burden in low-incidence countries. However, the effect of migration enabled by the free movement of persons within the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) on TB notification has not been analysed. We analysed TB surveillance data from 29 EU/EEA countries submitted for the years 2007–2013 to The European Surveillance System. We used place of birth and nationality as proxy indicators for native, other EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA origin of the TB cases and analysed the characteristics of the subgroups by origin. From 2007–2013, a total of 527,467 TB cases were reported, of which 129,781 (24.6%) were of foreign origin including 12,566 (2.4%) originating from EU/EEA countries other than the reporting country. The countries reporting most TB cases originating from other EU/EEA countries were Germany and Italy, and the largest proportion of TB cases in individuals came from Poland (n=1,562) and Romania (n=6,285). At EU/EEA level only a small proportion of foreign TB cases originated from other EU/EEA countries, however, the uneven distribution of this presumed importation may pose a challenge to TB programmes in some countries.
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