A motion is due before the Eastern Health Board next month calling for routine screening for TB of all those entering the Republic from high-risk countries, writes Eithne Donnellan.
Dr Brian O'Herlihy, director of public health with the EHB, said the numbers of TB patients across counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow had steadily declined but this trend had now been halted. He said that 154 cases of TB were treated in the region last year, an increase of 20 per cent on 1997.
A report on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in 1998 showed there was a doubling in the number of non-nationals being treated for TB, at 24. Most of these were of African or Asian origin and, according to the report, 66 per cent of these patients came from "high-risk" countries.