I like how they
think over in Contra Costa County, they don't dither about with what ifs and maybes, they just say it as it is;
Who: Screen all patients for risk of contracting TB or progressing to active TB. High Risk patients should be screened with an appropriate test screening test (TST or IGRA).
and then
High risk patients can be tested with:
TST: at any age. More likely to be false positive in a foreign born person with history of BGC vaccine
IGRA (Quantiferon): Preferred Test. Anyone over the age of 5 years old. Does not give BCG false positives
IGRA (T-SPOT): Children <5 or immunocompromised patients. Send out lab (see below for procedure)
That is their bold, not mine. Further on
All IGRAs are considered equivalent to TST testing. A postive IGRA is the same as a positive TST. IGRAs are not an appropriate test to diagnosis active TB. A negative QFT is not useful in ruling out disease in a symptomatic patient. There are two commercially available IGRA tests: Quantiferon-TB and T-SPOT
Quantiferon: This is our preferred test. Routinely use QFT to test for latent TB in high risk patients. Approved for use age 5 years and older. Available through Contra Cost Public Health Lab and can be drawn at any clinic site using standard lab order form.
At some point you get the message, they want you to use QuantiFERON.
