QIAGEN Welcomes New Guidelines from American Academy of Pediatrics for Detecting Tuberculosis Infection in Children

GERMANTOWN, Md. & HILDEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that it welcomes new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that recommend screening at-risk children as young as two years old for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection. The AAP guidelines include recommendations regarding testing with interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) such as QIAGEN’s QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) or QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus). The new standards were published June 1^st in the association’s Red Book: 2018 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases.

The pediatric guidelines come as authorities around the world are expanding the role of latent TB screening in global tuberculosis control efforts. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently endorsed the use of IGRAs for diagnosis of latent TB infection and cited QuantiFERON-TB Gold as one of two recommended alternatives to tuberculin skin tests (TSTs) in its Essential Diagnostics List. Starting October 1, 2018, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will require use of an FDA-approved IGRA for tuberculosis screening and will no longer allow use of the tuberculin skin test for immigration screening, including for children under age 5. Other organizations also have expanded their recommendations.

“We are pleased to see the American Academy of Pediatrics lowering its threshold age for use of IGRAs, which resonates with the growing global recognition by TB control experts of the value of using the most accurate diagnostic tests available. As part of comprehensive efforts to eradicate this life-threatening disease, latent TB infection can be detected in at-risk individuals and treated to prevent progression into active TB,” said Dr. Masae Kawamura, M.D., Senior Director, TB Medical and Scientific Affairs, at QIAGEN.

Please find the full press release here

To learn more about QuantiFERON-TB tests and tuberculosis control, please visit www.quantiferon.com.

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