What are the challenges of implementing new TB screening guidelines?
The editorial is co-authored by Henry M. Blumberg, MD, professor of medicine (infectious diseases), epidemiology, and global health at Emory University School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health, and Joel D. Ernst, MD, Jeffrey Bergstein Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. "The USPSTF recommendations are a positive step in discussing how best to expand efforts to test and treat LTBI among adults in primary care settings," says Blumberg. "However, as noted in our editorial, the scientific community and physicians lack the tools to really know who is at high risk for progression from latent TB infection to active TB." An estimated 12.4 million people in the United States have latent TB infection, with non-US-born people representing an increasingly larger proportion (73 percent) of this group. The lack of knowledge and tools highlights the importance of ongoing research leading to the development of better diagnostic test...