False-Positive Tuberculin Skin Test Results Among Low-Risk Healthcare Workers Following Implementation of Fifty-Dose Vials of Purified Protein Derivative

Abstract

Following large declines in tuberculosis transmission the United States, large-scale screening programs targeting low-risk healthcare workers are increasingly a source of false-positive results. We report a large cluster of presumed false-positive tuberculin skin test results in healthcare workers following a change to 50-dose vials of Tubersol tuberculin.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:750-752.

The blueprint for prevention of nosocomial tuberculosis transmission is clear, but why don't we have the will to follow it?

“…These relatively straightforward interventions led to prevention of nosocomial transmission as well as a nearly 10-fold decline in TB exposure episodes and days patients with pulmonary TB were not placed in AII precautions [2]. In the years following implementation of these administrative controls, new TB infections among healthcare workers (HCWs) due to occupational exposures have been extremely rare [3].…”