QIAGEN Welcomes WHO’s New Global Guidelines on Latent TB Screening
February 22 2018 - 4:05PM
Business Wire
World Health Organization recommends scale-up
of preventive screening and treatment
QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today
endorsed new guidelines issued by the World Health Organization
(WHO), which coordinates global efforts to control tuberculosis
(TB), calling for harmonization of preventive screening and
treatment of latent TB infection among vulnerable groups in
countries with a high disease burden, as well as in low-burden
countries. The guidelines also acknowledge the clinical value of
modern blood tests for latent TB infection, including QIAGEN’s
QuantiFERON-TB® Gold Plus.
Tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial infection spread
primarily through coughing by patients with the active pulmonary
form of the disease. In 2016, there were 10.4 million new cases of
active TB worldwide and 1.7 million deaths from TB, according to
WHO estimates. In latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), the
bacterium infects a person but produces no symptoms unless it
progresses to active disease. As part of comprehensive programs to
eradicate the disease, in recent years the WHO has continued to
expand its guidelines for screening high-risk individuals and
treating them for LTBI to prevent further contagion.
The new WHO guidelines Latent tuberculosis infection: Updated
and consolidated guidelines for programmatic management expand the
testing options, the number of groups for testing and treatment
options. They remove the prior 2011 recommendation against the use
of interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) in low and middle income
countries, where the burden of TB is highest. IGRAs or tuberculin
skin test (TST) can now be used for LTBI testing globally. The new
guidelines also acknowledge the higher benefit of preventive
treatment among persons living with HIV testing positive and the
global shortage of TST as a barrier to scaling up LTBI-prevention
programs.
Please find the full press release here
To learn more about QFT-Plus, QFT and tuberculosis control,
please visit www.quantiferon.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180222006185/en/
QIAGENInvestor RelationsJohn Gilardi+49 2103 29
11711Dr. Sarah Fakih+49 2103 29
11457e-mail:ir@QIAGEN.comorPublic RelationsDr. Thomas
Theuringer+49 2103 29 11826e-mail: pr@QIAGEN.com
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