RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Impact and management of TB childhood outbreaks in EU/EEA
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 3532
VO 42
IS Suppl 57
A1 Giovanni Battista Migliori
A1 Rosella Centis
A1 Lia D'Ambrosio
A1 Giovanni Sotgiu
A1 Bernadette Bourdin Trunz
A1 Richard Godfrey
A1 Marina Tadolini
A1 Giorgio Besozzi
A1 Andreas Sandgren
A1 Marieke J. van der Werf
YR 2013
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/3532.abstract
AB Most tuberculosis (TB) surveillance systems of the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) Member States (MS) do not provide information on whether TB cases are identified during outbreak investigations. Therefore there is a lack of information on the impact of outbreaks on the national burden of TB disease and latent TB infection (LTBI) among children.The aim of the study was to estimate the impact of TB outbreaks affecting children on the overall epidemiology in the EU/EEA and to assess public health policies and practices for outbreak management. A questionnaire was administered by ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) to 30 EU/EEA MS. Information was collected on the characteristics of childhood TB outbreaks (2004-2011), criteria and triggers for initiation of outbreak investigations, and policy documents on outbreak management. The questionnaire was complemented by interviews to identify best practices for management of childhood TB outbreaks.Of the 25 responders, 11 had decentralised outbreak management, while 9 had the Ministry of Health involved, particularly on communication issues. Information on outbreaks was available in 15 MS, 5 MS had no outbreaks; only 3 MS had reporting systems for LTBI.In the 11 MS with information, 580 paediatric outbreaks contributed 334 (6%) TB cases to the total of 5578 TB cases and 200 (29.3%) LTBI cases to the total of 683 LTBI cases.Although most MS had guidelines on outbreak management, specific recommendations for outbreaks affecting children were not always available. Practises for outbreak management varied between MS and most MS did not systematically collect information on outbreaks which hampers evaluating existing practises for outbreak management.