Abstract

GALLEGO, Claudio W.; POROPAT, Alejandra C.  and  SALOMONE, César A.. Modality proposal of tuberculosis infection screening in high school contacts. Medicina (B. Aires) [online]. 2022, vol.82, n.6, pp.927-933. ISSN 0025-7680.

The systematic registry of contacts with the objective of identifying and treating those with tuberculosis infection is one of the pillars established by the WHO in the end Tuberculosis Strategy. The risk of tuberculosis infection in school contacts, although lower than in households, is significant. However, compliance with preventive treatment is low and several points are open to discussion, such as the cutoff of the tuberculin test to be used, the usefulness of starting a chemoprophylactic treatment in the absence of confirmed infection or carrying out studies in contacts of non-bacilliferous index cases. This paper ad dresses these issues and proposes, with updated evidence, a screening modality for contacts in higher education institutions. This screening proposes to identify those infected using the cut-off point of 5 mm in the tuberculin test, offering preventive treatment and active follow-up only to those with a positive test.

Keywords : Tuberculosis; Latent tuberculosis; Tuberculin test; School contacts.

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