April 13, 2010

Updated CDC Guidelines..

..well sort of - you can read Dr. Philip LoBue's presentation slides here.  I think that we can safely assume that Dr. Philip LoBue's comments are those of the CDC - if you look at the CDC orgchart he is well placed


One of the nice subtleties of the LoBue presentation is on slide 25
Populations/situations in which IGRAs are preferred
– testing persons from groups that historically have poor rates of return for TST reading
– testing persons who have received BCG (as a vaccine or for cancer therapy)
This indicates a departure from previous CDC advice which stated that
the TB skin test is not contraindicated for persons who have been vaccinated with BCG. 
It would now seem that for BCG vaccinated persons the CDC would prefer that you used an IGRA.

Also on slide 27 Dr LoBue put the skids under the two step process
Routine testing with both TST and an IGRA is not recommended
It doesnt leave testers with too many options?