Tuberculosis in a Refugee Camp: A campaign to reduce transmission

In November 1985, tuberculosis was highly prevalent among the 6,250 Tigrayan refugees ofFau I camp in Eastern Sudan. It was therefore decided to launch an active case-finding campaign aimed at decreasing transmission, to be carried out by primary health care workers. The entire population of the camp was screened for symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis and the sputum of people with productive cough was examined by direct microscopy. However, it was considered that this examination was insufficiently sensitive in the camp situation. For this reason, people with non-productive cough or sputum-negative were enrolled in a follow-up program whose length was determined by the severity of their symptoms. The campaign was interrupted by circumstances that are typical of refugee situations. On the basis of results obtained a few conclusions can nonetheless be made on the appropriateness of introducing an active screening program in situations where a stable refugee population has good access to basic health care of good quality.