Proposal to Revise the Screening Test for Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Close Contacts at Elementary Schools in Korea.

ABSTRACT: The 2018 National Guideline for Tuberculosis Control, which was published by the Korea Centers for Diseases Prevention and Control (KCDC), mandates conducting an epidemiological survey among close contacts of active tuberculosis patients at public institutions such as schools. In the procedure for these surveys, the tuberculin skin test (TST) is mandated as the screening test for latent tuberculosis infection in elementary school students. However, several guidelines recommend using the interferon-gamma releasing assay (IGRA) for contacts aged over 5 years with a Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination history. The main reason for this is that IGRA has a higher specificity and lower false positive rate than TST. In addition, IGRA requires only a single visit to draw blood and the results are

SUBMITTER: Bae JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6686106 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature