Cargando…

Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI) in health care workers (HCW) in low-incidence countries especially in hospitals for pulmonary diseases. With Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), a new method for diagnosis of LTBI is available which is more...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schablon, Anja, Beckmann, Gudrun, Harling, Melanie, Diel, Roland, Nienhaus, Albert
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2631010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19134168
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-4-1
_version_ 1782163897236586496
author Schablon, Anja
Beckmann, Gudrun
Harling, Melanie
Diel, Roland
Nienhaus, Albert
author_facet Schablon, Anja
Beckmann, Gudrun
Harling, Melanie
Diel, Roland
Nienhaus, Albert
author_sort Schablon, Anja
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI) in health care workers (HCW) in low-incidence countries especially in hospitals for pulmonary diseases. With Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), a new method for diagnosis of LTBI is available which is more specific than the tuberculin skin test (TST). OBJECTIVES: The study was designed to estimate prevalence of LTBI among 270 HCW in a Hospital of Pulmonary Diseases routinely screened for TB. METHODS: LTBI was assessed by the QuantiFERON-Gold In Tube (QFT-IT). Information on gender, age, workplace, job title, BCG vaccination and history of both TB and TST were collected using a standardised questionnaire. Adjusted odds ratios for potential risk factors for LTBI were calculated. RESULTS: The prevalence of LTBI was 7.2%. In HCW younger than 30 years LTBI prevalence was 3.5% and in those older than 50 years 22%. Physicians and nurses showed a higher prevalence rate than other professions (10.8% to 4.5%). The putative risk factors for LTBI were age (>50 year OR 9.3, 95%CI 2.5–33.7), working as physicians/nurses (OR 3. 95%CI 1.2–10.4) and no previous TST in medical history (OR 4.4, 95%CI 1.01–18.9) when compared to those with a negative TST. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of LTBI assessed by QFT-IT is low, this indicates a low infection risk even in hospitals for pulmonary diseases. No statement can be made regarding the occupational risk as compared to the general population because there are no LTBI prevalence data from Germany available. The higher LTBI prevalence rate in older HCWs might be due to the cohort effect or the longer time at risk.
format Text
id pubmed-2631010
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2009
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-26310102009-01-27 Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases Schablon, Anja Beckmann, Gudrun Harling, Melanie Diel, Roland Nienhaus, Albert J Occup Med Toxicol Research BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI) in health care workers (HCW) in low-incidence countries especially in hospitals for pulmonary diseases. With Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), a new method for diagnosis of LTBI is available which is more specific than the tuberculin skin test (TST). OBJECTIVES: The study was designed to estimate prevalence of LTBI among 270 HCW in a Hospital of Pulmonary Diseases routinely screened for TB. METHODS: LTBI was assessed by the QuantiFERON-Gold In Tube (QFT-IT). Information on gender, age, workplace, job title, BCG vaccination and history of both TB and TST were collected using a standardised questionnaire. Adjusted odds ratios for potential risk factors for LTBI were calculated. RESULTS: The prevalence of LTBI was 7.2%. In HCW younger than 30 years LTBI prevalence was 3.5% and in those older than 50 years 22%. Physicians and nurses showed a higher prevalence rate than other professions (10.8% to 4.5%). The putative risk factors for LTBI were age (>50 year OR 9.3, 95%CI 2.5–33.7), working as physicians/nurses (OR 3. 95%CI 1.2–10.4) and no previous TST in medical history (OR 4.4, 95%CI 1.01–18.9) when compared to those with a negative TST. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of LTBI assessed by QFT-IT is low, this indicates a low infection risk even in hospitals for pulmonary diseases. No statement can be made regarding the occupational risk as compared to the general population because there are no LTBI prevalence data from Germany available. The higher LTBI prevalence rate in older HCWs might be due to the cohort effect or the longer time at risk. BioMed Central 2009-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC2631010/ /pubmed/19134168 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-4-1 Text en Copyright © 2009 Schablon et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Schablon, Anja
Beckmann, Gudrun
Harling, Melanie
Diel, Roland
Nienhaus, Albert
Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title_full Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title_fullStr Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title_short Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
title_sort prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among health care workers in a hospital for pulmonary diseases
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2631010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19134168
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6673-4-1
work_keys_str_mv AT schablonanja prevalenceoflatenttuberculosisinfectionamonghealthcareworkersinahospitalforpulmonarydiseases
AT beckmanngudrun prevalenceoflatenttuberculosisinfectionamonghealthcareworkersinahospitalforpulmonarydiseases
AT harlingmelanie prevalenceoflatenttuberculosisinfectionamonghealthcareworkersinahospitalforpulmonarydiseases
AT dielroland prevalenceoflatenttuberculosisinfectionamonghealthcareworkersinahospitalforpulmonarydiseases
AT nienhausalbert prevalenceoflatenttuberculosisinfectionamonghealthcareworkersinahospitalforpulmonarydiseases