Pre-migration TB screening—the first step is always the hardest

Abstract

As the proportion of foreign-born persons among TB notifications continues to rise, Japan is preparing to introduce pre-migration TB screening for those coming from selected countries, who are intending to stay for more than 90 days. It has announced that the programme will commence in 2020. In this review, the authors examine the experiences from two countries which already have years of experience in operating pre-migration TB screening, namely the United Kingdom and Australia. The authors point out that both countries have developed strong health information system not only to collect and analyse screening results, but also to use the data to effectively monitor and evaluate the screening programme itself. The critical role which health information system plays within pre-migration screening is often overlooked. Here we argue that Japan, as with any other countries planning to introduce pre-migration screening for TB, must also plan for data management.