Who Is at Risk for TB Infection?
Targeted testing is intended to prevent progression of TB by identifying persons at risk for TB infection or disease who would benefit from treatment for latent TB infection (LTBI). Children at high risk for TB infection include contacts of persons with active TB; those who are foreign-born; those who travel to or have household visitors from a country with a high TB prevalence such as Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and China (8); contacts with high-risk adults, including those who are homeless, incarcerated, infected with HIV, or intravenous drug users; and those with chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, renal failure, malnutrition, or other immunodeficiencies (6,7). The rationale for targeted TB screening includes some of the following factors. The positive predictive value of any test, even one with high sensitivity and specificity, is extremely low in any population with low prevalence of the disease in question. Universal testing of such a population would lead
