HILDEN, Germany and GERMANTOWN, Maryland, February 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Results Suggest Benefits of Quantitative Screening of Young Children in Countries With High TB Burden
QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that data published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal shows screening with QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) can detect latent tuberculosis (TB) infection in otherwise healthy young children and can predict which are likely to progress to the active stage of this life-threatening respiratory disease.
Results from the study of more than 2,500 young children in South Africa suggest that screening with the modern QuantiFERON-TB blood test could save lives in countries with a high TB burden by identifying those children most at risk of developing active disease. The study noted young children are particularly vulnerable to TB, with up to 20% of those infected by the bacteria developing the active TB disease.
“This study marks a true milestone. For the first time, there is a test that has demonstrated the potential to quantify the risk for young children to develop active tuberculosis. Researchers found that those with a QuantiFERON-TB test result above a certain threshold were far more likely than others to get sick with the active disease. TB is a terrible killer of children in high-burden countries, so early diagnosis and treatment could save many lives,” said Dr. Masae Kawamura, Senior Director, TB Medical and Scientific Affairs, at QIAGEN.
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Contacts: QIAGEN Investor Relations John Gilardi +49-2103-29-11711 e-mail: ir@QIAGEN.com Public Relations Dr. Thomas Theuringer +49-2103-29-11826 e-mail: pr@QIAGEN.com
