Radiological screening of refugees in Germany

In 2015, Germany registered 1 091 894 refugees. On arrival, refugees admitted to reception centres underwent statutory chest radiograph (CXR) screening for tuberculosis (TB), regardless of the country of origin. Notified TB cases increased by 29.4% from 4533 in 2014 to 5865 in 2015 [1]. We evaluated the yield of active TB screening using statutory CXR and the spectrum of TB disease diagnosed through mass screening. Radiological mass screening of migrants arriving in Germany from low-incidence countries may not be efficient We are grateful for their support and contributions to Udo Iseke and Janet Prior (both Duderstadt), Friederike Ley (Wiesbaden), Ulrich Wagner (Karlsruhe), Andreas Hinrichs, André Kröncke and Levke Sonntag (all Boostedt), Brigitte Buhr-Riehm and Iris Taddeo-Weiß (both Braunschweig), Doris Hellwig, Doris Thieme-Thörel, Eckart Mayr and Sabine Reinecke (Göttingen), and Thomas Wibmer and Reinhard Hoffmann (both Augsburg).