Background: Tuberculosis in immigrants is an emerging disease in industrialized countries.
Method: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of culture-positive tuberculosis cases in the immigrant and native populations.
Results: One hundred and five cases of tuberculosis were observed; 22 cases (21%) were in immigrants. The 2002 incidence was 64.3 cases per 100,000 immigrants. Mean age of the affected immigrants was 28.5 years lower than that of the affected native population (p < 0.001). The rate of HIV coinfection was 9.1%. In 81.8% (18) of immigrants, presentation was exclusively pulmonary, a higher percentage than in the native population (59.2%) (p = 0.05). Loss to follow-up was more common among immigrants (35%) than among the native population (9.2%) (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Tuberculosis in the immigrant population generally involves the lungs, appears in younger subjects and is a public heath problem because of the high rate of losses to follow-up.