Melbourne, Feb 15, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - In a landmark study electronically published today in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a blood test for detecting tuberculosis infection, QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT), has been shown to be six times more accurate than the conventional tuberculin skin test (TST) at predicting which tuberculosis (TB)-exposed individuals will go on to develop TB disease. This study has important implications for the worldwide effort to eradicate TB, as accurately indentifying TB-infected individuals allows health authorities to treat them before they develop disease, and the greater accuracy of the new test makes this more efficient as well as cheaper and safer.
