The number of asylum seekers arriving in the State who avail of voluntary health screening is high, one of the first large scale studies on the subject has found.
The study looked at asylum seekers dispersed to Cork city between 2002 and 2004 going for infectious disease screening and the outcome of this screening.
Some 3,731 asylum seekers were dispersed to counties Cork and Kerry over the period.
Not all of these would have ended up in Cork city but many did and some 2,802 asylum seekers presented for voluntary health screening in the city over the period.
Dr Maeve Burke, a public health specialist with the Health Service Executive in the south who led the study, said she regarded this as a large uptake.
There have been a number of calls in recent years for screening to be made mandatory.
Former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan called for compulsory health screening of asylum-seekers in the run up to the 2002 general election.
He was criticised for doing so by the Irish Refugee Council and groups representing doctors.
Dr Burke said she would not support screening for asylum seekers being made mandatory.
This study indicates that many avail of screening even when it is voluntary.
Some 49 per cent of the 2,802 asylum seekers who presented for screening in the city between 2002 and 2004 were male and 51 per cent were female.
The majority were in the 25 to 29 year age group and they came from 74 different countries, speaking 30 different languages.
Among them were 541 pregnant women.
Dr Burke said the screenings identified "significant levels of infection" that needed to be referred to specialists.
Some 6,500 vaccinations were administered.
A total of 2,163 or 77 per cent of the asylum seekers opted to have a HIV test and 2 per cent were found to be HIV positive.
Some 3 per cent of the pregnant women tested HIV positive and were referred for specialist treatment which resulted in none of them passing the virus on to their babies.
The rate of infection in these pregnant women was 10 times that found in an Irish maternity hospital study which involved a multicultural population, Dr Burke said.
Over 80 per cent of those who presented for screening opted to have a hepatitis B test.
Of these 10 per cent were found to be carriers, which meant they were potentially infectious.
Dr Burke explained that the rates of infection reflected where the asylum seekers had come from.
Some 62 per cent had come from Africa.
She said a pregnant woman who carried hepatitis B had a 90 per cent chance of passing the infection on to her baby.
It was important that screening was extended to all maternity hospitals to allow women to be treated and prevent them passing on the infection to their baby, Dr Burke said.