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Written question asked by Doug Naysmith (Labour) on Thursday, 15 October 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 October 2009. It was answered by Baroness Merron (Labour) on Thursday, 22 October 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Tuberculosis: Screening

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether his Department has conducted recent research on the effectiveness of the port of entry screening programme for tuberculosis;
Answer

The Department has not conducted research on the effectiveness of the port of entry screening programme for tuberculosis (TB).The Department has not made an estimate of the cost of operating the port of entry screening programme for TB in the last five years.The data on the number of cases on active and latent TB detected at port of entry screening in the last five years are not collected centrally.The Health Protection Agency (HPA) receives data on cases classified as "possible active TB" from the Heathrow and Gatwick Health Control Units (HCUs) as reported on Port Form 103, which is how the medical inspector notifies the district to which the immigrant is going.Data received by the HPA are shown in the following table:

Number of PF 103 referrals
Period Heathrow¹ Gatwick²
2004-05 n/a 15
2005-06 587 11
2006-07 590 16
2007-08 475 16
2008-09 421 1
Sources:
¹ Heathrow HCU annual report
² Gatwick HCU annual report

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
497 c1659W; 294331
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Screening Tuberculosis
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk