Asylum Seekers in Contingency Accommodation – Diphtheria enhanced surveillance study
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The documents attached and message below is to raise your awareness and for your action, as required.
Please find attached two briefings that your regional UKHSA teams may have disseminated to your ICBs for onward cascade to primary care. This relates to an enhanced surveillance study for diphtheria where some newly arrived asylum seekers are randomly swabbed when at Manston. The study is due to conclude at the end of October. There may therefore be very few positive cases. Current incidence is thought to be <1% in the briefing attached.
For your awareness, the implications are as follows:
- The initial test result will be available within 24-48 hours, however, people only stay at Manston for up to a maximum of 24 hours.
- For the very few probable positive cases, South East health protection team will trace the individual to the hotel/accommodation they have been transferred to and recommend an urgent clinical review. This should happen within 24 hours to identify whether the individual may require antitoxin treatment.
- Issues we have. and are still experiencing in the South East, where the study started in June, relate to the facts that:
- Individuals may not yet be registered with a GP by the time the test result is received.
- 111 does not necessarily understand the case for an OOH GP review or the urgency of the request.
Downloads