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

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jeffrey Collins, Emory University; Mary Hunter, Emory University; Wanda Gordon, Grady Health System; Russell Ryan Kempker, Emory University; Henry Michael Blumberg, Emory University; Susan M Ray, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-06-01
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP): STM Journals
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ice.2018.59
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
• ISSN: 0899-823X
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 6
• Start Page: 750
• End Page: 752
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (grant no. T32 AI074492 to J.M.C.; grant no. K23 AI103044 to R.R.K.; grant no. UL1 TR002378 to the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance) and the Emory Medical Care Foundation.
• Keywords: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Infectious Diseases; INFECTION
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, Public Health

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.