Study Shows: New Blood Test Proven Six Times More Effective For Tuberculos...(sease. 40% had a positive TST but only 1...),Health

Date:2/15/2008

sease. 40% had a positive TST, but only 11% (66) of the exposed persons were found infected by QFT and offered TB treatment -- 41 declined. Over the next two years 6 people developed TB disease, all were QFT positive and had declined treatment. In the past, all 243 TST positive people would need to have had anti-TB treatment to prevent only 5 of these cases, as one was TST negative. In scientific terms, QFT had a predictive value for developing TB disease of 15%, more than 6 times greater than the 2.3% for the TST.

What does this mean? Using QFT, doctors can now treat only a fraction of the people they would have with the TST, with the knowledge that they are preventing TB disease to at least the same extent, and likely better.

Dr. Lee B. Reichman, Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Community Health and Executive Director of the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute in Newark, New Jersey USA comments:

"For many years we have known that active TB is a preventable disease, but we have had an extremely difficult time convincing health professionals and patients to apply and accept well recognized preventive measures because the tuberculin skin test universally used to define risk wasn't selective enough.

This study by Diel and colleagues is really "dynamite" because, for the first time, it documents that by using QFT in place of the skin test, practitioners can focus on a much smaller group who are those most likely to progress to active TB".

These findings have far-reaching economic implications for global and regional TB control, as use of QFT in similar settings will likely result in only one quarter the number of individuals requiring preventive medication as indicated by the current, inaccurate, TST. The adoption of QFT will enable health authorities to confidently focus on individuals who are truly at risk of developing active TB, significantly reducing the costs and risks associated with prevent
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SOURCE Cellestis International Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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