Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of tuberculosis in migrants in North Greece between 1988-97

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Abstract

From the middle of the last decade an increase has been observed in tuberculosis mortality and morbidity rates across the globe. One of the reasons for this increase especially in industrialized countries is migration. Greece has seen stable tuberculosis rates followed by a mild increase in epidemiological indicators from the end of the 1980’s decade and onwards a time period during which migration appeared at an increasing rate. In the present study the demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of 720 patients with tuberculosis from the Northern region of Greece were studied. Seventy-nine of the patients were migrants (primarily Greeks from ex Soviet Union countries) A statistically significant upward trend over time, of the proportion of immigrants among the total number of patients was shown. The age prototype of migrant patients is stronger in younger ages (20-40 years old) in comparison to Greeks whereas the opposite is observed for cases over then 50 years old. Statistically significant differences with rates obviously higher for migrants are observed in the proportion