The impact of BCG vaccination on tuberculin skin test responses in children is age dependent: evidence to be considered when screening children for tuberculosis infection

摘要

Background Following exposure to TB, contacts are screened to target preventive treatment at those at high risk of developing TB. The UK has recently revised its recommendations for screening and now advises a 5 mm tuberculin skin test (TST) cut-off irrespective of age or BCG status. We sought to evaluate the impact of BCG on TST responses in UK children exposed to TB and the performance of different TST cut-offs to predict interferon. release assay (IGRA) positivity.