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The Health Protection Agency (HPA) welcomes the decision by the Home Office to replace existing airport based screening for TB infection with a pre-entry screening programme.

Currently, the Department of Health has a policy of chest X-ray screening of migrants at Heathrow and Gatwick airports as part of immigration control. This applies to individuals who are staying in the UK for six months and are from a country with a high incidence of TB.

The new measures, announced by the Home Office recy, mean migrants wanting to enter the UK for more than six months, who are from over 67 countries with a high risk of TB, will need to be screened before they are granted a visa for the UK. The UK Border Agency will build on existing pre-screening undertaken by international partners including the USA, Canada and Australia.

Dr Paul Cosford, executive director of Health Protection Services at the HPA, said: “We have been concerned for a number of years that chest x-rays at ports may not be cost effective or an appropriate way of dealing with TB. The main reason for this is that while it is known that TB is more prevalent in those born in certain countries abroad, it is often several years after entry into the UK before the infection manifests itself, making detection in ports by chest x-ray relatively ineffective.

“The introduction of a pre-entry screening programme in countries with high incidence of TB is a welcome addition to our TB control programme. This will enable resources currently invested in an ineffective port of entry system to be used more efficiently elsewhere in the continuing effort to control the spread of TB in the UK.

“The HPA will continue to offer expert health protection advice in ports in order to minimise the impact of infectious diseases and other hazards to public health.”

It is estimated that the current X-ray programme at Heathrow and Gatwick identifies 30 - 60 cases of TB a year, the pre-entry programme is likely to identify more than this.

Ministerial approval has already been given to discontinue the TB screening service at Gatwick airport from July 2012. This was due to low levels of chest x-ray activity and very limited outcomes from the programme which did not justify its cost. The service at Heathrow airport will continue until the pre-entry screening programme is up and running.

Public health actions at airports to protect against people with infectious TB will remain. These include UK Borders Agency staff referring people who are ill to the Port Medical Inspectors.

Notes to editors:

1. TB is an infection caused by bacteria. It usually affects the lungs, but can affect other parts of the body. TB is transmitted when someone who has the infection coughs or sneezes, but it requires close prolonged contact in order to spread from person to person. For more information visit: http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Tuberculosis/
2. Cases of TB remain stable in the UK with around 9,000 new cases diagnosed in 2011 and almost three quarters of cases were in non-UK born people.
3. The Health Protection Agency is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards. In April 2013 the Health Protection Agency will become part of a new organisation called Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health. To find out more, visit our website: www.hpa.org.uk
 

or follow us on Twitter @HPAuk.

4. For more information please contact the national HPA press office at Colindale on 0208 327 7901 or email colindale-pressoffice@hpa.org.uk. Out of hours the duty press officer can be contacted on 0208 200 4400.