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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2018

Jeffrey M. Collins*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia
Mary Hunter
Affiliation:
Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia Division of General Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
Wanda Gordon
Affiliation:
Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia
Russell R. Kempker
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia
Henry M. Blumberg
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia
Susan M. Ray
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia
*
Address correspondence to Jeffrey M. Collins, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, 49 Jesse Hill Jr Drive, Atlanta, GA 30303 (jmcoll4@emory.edu).

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

Type
Concise Communications
Copyright
© 2018 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved 

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References

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