The tuberculin skin test is commonly used in tuberculosis (TB) eradication programmes in cattle (Monaghan et al., 1994). The detection of false-positive reactors is important particularly in areas where there is a relatively low incidence of the disease, and can be attributed, at least in part, to immunological cross-reactivity with other mycobacteria infections. Of particular concern is Mycoba...

OBJECTIVE Tuberculosis (TB) is an important infectious disease worldwide. Tuberculin skin test (TST) is the standard test for diagnosis of tuberculosis infection; Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination at birth has effects on this test. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of positive TST cases among 7- to 11-year-old primary school children and also to follow test-positive...

BACKGROUND Health care workers (HCW) have historically borne a heavy burden of tuberculosis (TB) infection and disease. Unfortunately, physicians are rarely included in HCW surveys of tuberculin exposure and infection. METHODS The prevalence and risk factors for tuberculin reactivity were determined for a sample of the 1732 licensed physicians in Edmonton. Stratified random sampling was used ...

Latent tuberculosis was studied in a research laboratory. A prevalence of positive tuberculin skin test results (>or= 15 mm) of 20% was found and the main predictors were place of birth in a foreign country with high prevalence of tuberculosis and a history of contact with patients with untreated active tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of cutaneous anergy in pregnant and nonpregnant women who are seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus. METHODS AND MATERIALS The medical records of 159 women seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus were reviewed. Demographic characteristics and tuberculin skin test results were abstracted from the chart. Tuberculin skin testing was performed b...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of positive tuberculin skin test (TST) reactions (10 mm or greater) among full-time employees of a provincial prison for women in Montreal. METHODS Participants underwent tuberculin skin testing and completed a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS Among 129 employees identified, 118 (91%) underwent tuberculin testing. Among 102 born in Quebec who co...

BACKGROUND BCG vaccination in low prevalence countries is controversial. Most discussions have been done by the comparison of benefit, side effect and cost of BCG vaccination. No discussion has been done on the disadvantage of BCG vaccination from the point of view of loss of sensitivity and specificity of tuberculin test on the diagnosis of LTBI. METHOD Three groups, i.e. the BCG vaccination...

Bovine Paratuberculosis is a chronic disease primarily of the gastrointestinal tract. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis (MAP). Paratuberculosis is a disease of high economic importance around the globe. The present study was carried out to investigate the epidemiology and pathology of paratuberculosis in cattle and buffaloes at two cattle/buffalo colonies of F...