Battling Tuberculosis beyond antibiotics

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Cyprus has doubled over the last decade and an urgent overhaul is needed to curb its spread.

To analyze the incidence of TB on the basis of nationality, age, and sex and provide an insight on TB pattern in Cyprus.

We performed an odds ratio statistical analysis of the latest data and concluded that some nationalities are significantly associated with this increase.

We identified that this can be partly attributed to a legislation gap, which provides that screening is mandatory only for third-country migrants, whereas there is no provision for high-risk European migrants.

On the basis of our findings, we suggest that health policies for TB in Cyprus be reformed and epidemiological findings be embedded in a revised integrated policy. This will make health policies more efficient and help contain scarce resources, both human and monetary.