The tubercular disease in immigrants without documents: new diagnostic settings adopted in Milan, Italy

The tubercular disease (TB) is "the disease of poverty and people in need", spread in the poorest countries and among the less wealthy people of the western world (immigrants). In Italy the health authority has recently defined precise diagnostic and therapeutic patterns for TB. The social and health Association Naga in Milan with the Regional Reference Centre for TB, designed a screening system. In Naga's surgery all the undocumented immigrants, coming to Italy from countries with high TB incidence (> 100/100000) and high immigration rates, are screened by a questionnaire created by the Swiss Lung League; the suspect cases are sent to a designed centre for a second level of investigation. The use of this form allows to set a first selection based on the patients' anamnestic history, thus avoiding the intradermal reaction that, due to its low selectivity, could cause a 4 times higher crowding of the designed secondary centers.