CDC Updates TB Recommendations for Health Care Workers
AAFP
Annual tuberculosis rates of infection in the United States have declined substantially during the past nearly three decades, according to CDC data, with the 2017 rate dipping to 2.8 per 100,000 population — a 73% decrease from 1991, when the rate was 10.4 per 100,000, and a 42% dip from 2005’s rate of 4.8 per 100,000. Additionally, surveillance data reported to the agency from 1995 to 2007 showed that TB incidence rates among health care personnel were similar to those in the general population, raising questions about the cost-effectiveness of routine serial occupational testing.
These collective findings led the CDC to update its “Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005.”(www.cdc.gov) The new guidance was published in a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report(www.cdc.gov) released May 17.