Ending tuberculosis in risk groups in Europe: challenges from travel and population movement

As many countries in Europe make progress in tuberculosis (TB) control, TB incidence in Europe is diverse; in low-incidence countries (those with an incidence less than 20 per 100,000 [1]) the TB burden is increasingly borne by specific risk groups, such as migrants from highto lower-incidence countries, persons with social risk factors such as homelessness and individuals who have been in contact with a TB patient. Strategies to control TB within these risk groups include screening for active disease and sometimes latent infection [2,3], followed by treatment where appropriate. The effectiveness of screening strategies to identify patients needing treatment varies. For example, the yield of active TB among migrants from highto low-burden countries ranged from 7 to 10,186 per 100,000 people screened, depending on various factors including the TB prevalence in the country of origin [2]. In this World TB Day issue of Eurosurveillance, four papers describe the risks of TB infection and disease in two potentially high-risk groups: migrants [4,5] and airline passengers [6,7].