Healthcare providers (HCPs) face an increased risk of tuberculosis and can benefit from systematic testing and treatment of latent TB infection. Over the past 15 years, laboratory-based TB interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) have transformed screening programmes with higher accuracy, operational advantages and convenience to healthcare providers. In this webinar, Dr Manish Pareek provides an overview of standard policies and best practices for screening HCPs for TB infection. He will discuss the risks of TB infection and latent TB reactivation in the occupational health setting, describe current global testing guidelines and provide a UK-specific perspective on TB screening in low-burden settings. Dr Pareek will also discuss the performance and cost-effectiveness of modern TB blood tests (IGRAs), with a focus on QIAGEN's fourth-generation QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus test.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the scope of the global TB epidemic and the focus of public health policies in low-TB-burden settings
- Describe guidelines and best-practices for latent TB screening of healthcare providers
- Identify the benefits of TB blood tests (IGRAs) as a primary screening tool
About the speaker: Manish Pareek graduated from the University of Birmingham with Honors in Medicine and undertook general medical training before completing an academic specialist training programme in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine in Leicester and London (Imperial College London) funded by the NIHR and MRC. At present, he is an Associate Clinical Professor in Infectious Diseases at the University of Leicester.
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