Arizona and QuantiFERON

Arizona Department of Health Services TB Control Program has a presentation by Professor Douglas B. Hornick, MD titled TB Infection Control in Health Care Settings. The presentation was from the three day 2010 Infectious Disease Training & Exercise program.

Professor Hornick asks

What is the most dangerous type of TB to Health Care Workers?

The Unsuspected Case!!

Primarily unsuspected TB would have to be latent TB.  In looking at IGRA (QFT-G) for Screening Professor Hornick notes that

– Several have switched from TST to QFT-G (CDC recommendation w/ little data)
– LTBI infection rate reduced to 6-8% from 25-45%
– One institution found 3 early active pulmonary cases 

Sounds like switching to QFT was a successful move for infection control.