Background & Objectives: Annually, many Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan worldwide. This practice has different favorable medical and physiological effects, such as improved serum lipid profile and blood glucose level due to changes in diet and sleep patterns. It has also been hypothesized that Ramadan fasting may affect the immune system. As reported, Ramadan fasting can influence the ...

Following a policy of BCG vaccination adopted in Kuwait more than 20 yrs ago, children receive their first vaccination just before starting school. Those who have a response of less than 10 mm induration to 2 tu of RT23 PPD, when they are 13 yrs old, are revaccinated. The effects of this revaccination on skin test positivity in a group of 18 yr old senior school children have been investigated....

In 1937, the foundation year of the Brazilian Institute for Tuberculosis Research, three questions persisted in the researchers’ mind: “What is the real value of BCG? How to solve the problem of the chest register of large communities? When will we have a specific drug for the treatment of tuberculosis?” Along with this line of thought, the author presents a list of the Institute’s main contrib...

BACKGROUND Documentation of test results for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection is important for health care workers and students before they begin work. A negative result provides a baseline for comparison with future tests. A positive result affords a potential opportunity for treatment of latent infection when appropriate. We sought to evaluate the yield of the referral process for positive ...

This study was aimed to develop a dry purified protein devirative (PPD) preparation to extend the shelf-life of tuberculin PPD. Five percent sucrose (S), 6.5% mannitol (M), 2.5% trehalose (T) or 0.3% Hemaccel (H) was added to each formulation. In vivo and in vitro analyses were carried out to determine the efficacy of the lyophilized products. In the in vivo test, the delayed type hypersensitiv...

BACKGROUND We analyse whether the tuberculin skin test is a good survival marker in a cohort of pulmonary tuberculosis patients with HIV infection (PTB/HIV). In all, 494 PTB/HIV patients were enrolled in Barcelona (Spain) between January 1992 and December 1994 in the Tuberculosis Program of Barcelona. The main data problem was the large proportion of missing values in the covariates percentage ...

ABST RACT Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infection in cattle remains a major zoonotic and economic problem in many countries. In addition, M. bovis is an important pathogen of both man and animals. The standard diagnostic test for this disease is the intradermal tuberculin test, one of the oldest immunological tests still in widespread use. However, this test can lack both sensitivity and speci...

OBJECTIVE Between November 1994 and April 1995, more than 3300 students in 49 schools in two counties in New York were potentially exposed to five school bus drivers with tuberculosis. This investigation was carried out to determine the extent of transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis among students. METHODS Components of the epidemiologic investigation included tuberculin skin-test scree...