Testing EU workers for TB ‘could combat

VOLUNTARY screening for tuberculosis (TB) among EU workers in Ireland would help combat the disease that has forced a Cork school to defer re-opening after three pupils were infected.

President of the Irish Thoracic Society (ITS), Dr Terry O’Connor, said incoming workers from other EU member states should be encouraged to attend voluntary clinics, particularly if they hailed from countries with a high incidence of TB. He said other non-EU nationals had to undergo a battery of health checks to test for infectious diseases, including TB, and the same should apply to EU immigrants.

Dr O’Connor, a consultant respiratory physician at Mercy University Hospital, said the setting up of clinics should be accompanied by a campaign to drive home the advantages of early detection of TB. “We have enjoyed many cultural benefits as a result of people from other countries coming to work here but there is a downside too, and people may have shirked from that,” he said.