TUBERCULOSIS IN RECENTLY ARRIVED IMMIGRAN TS TO BARCELONA

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present was to study the prevalence of infe ction and tuberculous disease as well as the fulfillment of secondary antituberculin chemoprophylaxis in immigrants according to their geogr aphic origin. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A descriptive study was carried ou t of 1,489 immigrants under the age of 35 years attended in the Tropic al and Imported Disease Unit Drassanes in Barcelona, Spain from 1989 t o 1994. RESULTS: The patients were from 79 countries, with 81.7% being males and 18.3% females (p < 0.001) of a mean age 26.1 +/- 5.7 and 23 .4 +/- 7.5 years, respectively, Forty-three percent of the cases prese nted Mantoux test response greater than or equal to 10 mm of induratio n, The highest percent of positivity was observed in patients from Sub saharian Africa (52%) followed by Eastern Europeans and Asians (44%), South and Central Americans (38%) and Middle East and Northern Africa (34%) (p < 0.001), Thirty-nine percent of the 359 patients who initiat ed secondary antituberculin chemoprophylaxis completed the 6 months of treatment with the highest fulfillment being found in Africans (49%) followed by Americans (42%) and Asians (39%), The lowest rate was obse rved in the Eastern Europeans (20%) (p < 0.001). Fifty-six percent of the patients abandoned secondary antituberculin prophylaxis within the first three months. Eighteen cases of active tuberculosis were diagno sed. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of tuberculous infection and disease is high immigrants in Barcelona, Spain, The fulfillment of chemoprophy laxis is low and abandoned early, These facts should be evaluated when designing prevention and control programs.