Evaluation of Results from Occupational Tuberculin Skin Tests – Mississippi, 2006

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
• Personal Author:
  Page, Elena H. ; Driscoll, Richard J. ; Gibbins, John D.
• Description:
  In October 2006, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a request for a health hazard evaluation from a fire department in Mississippi. In June 2006, the fire department had administered two-step tuberculin skin tests (TSTs) and determined that nine firefighters tested positive for tuberculosis (TB) infection. Local investigation had identified no source of TB infection. The NIOSH evaluation was conducted to 1) determine whether TB transmission was occurring among department firefighters, 2) assess the accuracy of positive TST results, and 3) make recommendations regarding administration of future fire department TB-testing programs. This report describes the results of that evaluation, which indicated that all nine firefighters had false-positive TST findings, likely caused by errors in interpretation of the test results. These results highlight the importance of conducting TB testing only when indicated by TB risk assessment and following CDC guidelines to avoid errors in TST administration and interpretation that might result in unnecessary medical evaluation and follow-up. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Bacterial Infections Communicable Disease Control Communicable Diseases Firefighters Occupational Health Safety Skin
• Keywords:
  Infection-control; Infectious-diseases; Skin-tests; Medical-screening; Medical-treatment; Fire-fighters; Disease-prevention; Disease-control; Bacterial-infections; Biological-effects; Biological-monitoring
• Source:
  MMWR 2007 Dec; 56(50):1316-1318
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Mississippi ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Turk, A. ; James, R. ; Bernard, Bruce P. ; Hales, Thomas R. ; Tepper, Allison L. ; Galloway, E. ; MacKenzie, B.
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  50
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033009
• Citation:
  MMWR 2007 Dec; 56(50):1316-1318
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:469f318d76b284c4f82c2aab985fb007a236aa07bbb760816bb6196aac38ad40186eddb646da2e9b09538c60faa28a83f6b3f08e747f0235951b30fc93c093d6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/183084/cdc_183084_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 619.25 KB ]