QIAGEN announced that it welcomes new guidelines in the United States that recommend screening at-risk children of all ages for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection with modern blood-based tests such as QIAGEN’s market-leading QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus).
The new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) emphasize testing for TB with modern interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs). The new standards were published in the academy’s Red Book: 2024–2027 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases.
The new TB screening guidelines expand on the organization’s previous IGRA recommendations and now cover children of all ages, including infants and children age 2 and under.
The AAP’s recommendations follow recently updated guidelines from the American College Health Association (ACHA) stating that IGRAs are preferred over the 120-year-old tuberculin skin test (TST) for most situations relevant to college health.
The updated childhood TB screening guidelines come as U.S. authorities are expanding the role of latent TB screening in national tuberculosis control efforts.
QIAGEN recently announced a partnership with the International Panel Physicians Association (IPPA) to support and educate panel physicians around the globe on new US CDC tuberculosis screening guidelines that require the use of IGRA tests to ensure a safe immigration process and support the global fight against TB.
