Following on from their
guidelines and
expert opinion comes
this paper from the TB Research Unit, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre. Firstly they establish the need
It is clear that tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia is in need for attention. This is supported by the increase in the infection rate 0.6% during 2007 compared to 2006 infection rate.
and how to meet that need
We believe that the first step in improving the control of tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia is to improve and unify the standards of diagnostic services and laboratories responsible for tuberculosis. This paper reviews the current status and suggests possible improvements.
and in more detail
It is essential to screen at least those at high risk for latent TB using most reliable tools. Recently FDA approved two new interferon- gama release assays (IGRAs) which are are now available for the diagnosis of LTBI: the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (Cellestis, Victoria, Australia) and the T-SPOT.TB (Oxford Immunotec, Oxford, UK). Both tests are better than skin test in the specificity and sensitivity to diagnose latent TB. Also they have advantages over the skin test; including ease in performance, no need for second second visit and the test reading is not subjective like skin test. One of these two tests should be implemented to screen most vulnerable groups within the communities to detect latent TB or even catch those whom recently converted to sero-positive [2].
The advantages of these new tests in addition to what was mentioned that they, unlike skin test, do not cross react with other mycobacteria such environmental mycobacteria or do not react with BCG vaccine it self.
