Opportunistic ‘assessment’ of migrants recommended

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has published draft guidelines proposing the opportunistic assessment for common infectious diseases in all migrants across a wide range of health services. In an update of current guidelines introduced in 2004 focused on communicable disease screening for asylum seekers, the draft uses the term ‘assessment’ instead of ‘screening’ so as to “avoid any confusion that these migrant consultations are formal population screening programmes that fulfil the narrow screening criteria such as those outlined by the UK National Screening Committee (NSC)”. According to the document, migrant assessment should be offered if considered necessary on clinical…