Of the 5,000 or so chest x-rays carried out on immigrants last year as part of a tuberculosis screening programme only 29 indicated pulmonary TB, it was revealed yesterday.

A third of them were diagnosed as soon as they landed in Malta and another five after being screened when they were released from detention, the health authorities said during a press conference to mark World Tuberculosis Day celebrated last Tuesday.

Nine migrants were diagnosed with extra-pulmonary tuberculosis.

Last year, saw a total of 64 cases of tuberculosis, a jump from the annual average of 21 in the 1990s.

The focus on the immigrants stemmed from the fact that certain parts of Africa, where most of Malta's illegal immigrants come from, are susceptible to TB.

Gianfranco Spiteri, a medical officer within the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit, said illegal immigrants were screened in their first week in Malta and were isolated if found to be suffering from an active form of tuberculosis that could spread.

However, there had not been any cases of transmission of tuberculosis, Ray Busuttil, the director general for public health, said.

Although the number of cases in Malta increased over the past years because of more foreigners, the rate among the Maltese remained the same, Dr Busuttil said.

Figures showed 17 cases of TB among Maltese residents last year. He said the island was reviewing the vaccination policy as part of an ongoing process. The vaccine was currently given to all children aged 12.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that mostly affects the lungs, although it can affect any other organ. The symptoms in the lungs include a productive cough lasting more than two weeks, fever, weight loss and night sweats. The disease spreads through the air, similarly to the common cold.

When a person gets infected with TB, the immune system tries to contain the infection. In fact, it is estimated that only between five and 10 per cent of infected persons will get sick with TB during their lifetime.

Those with a weakened immune system, like HIV-positive people, are at higher risk of developing tuberculosis.

Dr Busuttil said there were 9.2 million cases globally in 2006, with almost 20 per cent of them being fatal. He said one of the biggest challenges was the emergence of strains that were resistant to drugs and which amounted to some five per cent of cases. Malta only had two cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis around two years ago and this resistant strain had not re-emerged.

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department director Charmaine Gauci stressed the importance that medicines were taken properly to avoid the emergence of resistant strains. She said close contacts of patients found to be suffering from active TB were screened in a bid to start treating them at the earliest.

Dr Busuttil admitted that the workload for doctors had increased since the international aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières pulled out of detention centres earlier this month.

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