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News story NEW PHASE OF TUBERCULOSIS SCREENING LAUNCHED AS PART OF IMMIGRATION RULES CHANGES Home Office continues tuberculosis pre-entry screening programme roll out in second set of high
incidence countries This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government The second phase of the Home Office’s life-saving pre-entry tuberculosis
(TB) screening programme has been introduced as part of the new immigration rules laid today (Monday 10 June). PRE-ENTRY SCREENING The programme means that migrants who want to enter the UK
for more than six months, from 67 countries with a high incidence of TB, have to be screened before they are granted a visa for the UK. The first phase of pre-entry screening was rolled out
to eight countries, including India, Malaysia and the Philippines, in May 2012, and will now be introduced to a further 11 countries from Monday 1 July. Immigration Minister Mark Harper
said: > It’s essential that we take action to tackle the rise of > tuberculosis cases in the UK. Pre-entry screening, followed by > treatment where necessary, will help to prevent
the risk of TB in > the UK and will also save lives. > > The further expansion of our pre-entry screening process will help > prevent the importation and spread of TB in the UK
and save money > for the tax payer in the process. INCREASE The introduction of pre-screening comes as recent figures showed that there were over 9,000 new cases of TB in the UK in 2011,
a five per cent increase on 2010. The programme is targeted at migrants after research showed non-UK born people accounted for three quarters of all new TB cases diagnosed – 20 times higher
than in the UK born population. Pre-entry screening will be rolled out to the following 11 countries from Monday 1 July: China (settlement cases only), Ethiopia, Gambia, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Malawi, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. The immigration rules changes were introduced in an explanatory memorandum. SHARE THIS PAGE The following links open in
a new tab * Share on Facebook (opens in new tab) * Share on Twitter (opens in new tab) UPDATES TO THIS PAGE Published 10 June 2013