EDITORIAL

ELISPOT

Spotting latent infection: the path to better tuberculosis control

A Lalvani

Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Honorary Consultant Physician, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Level 7, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK; ajit.lalvani@ndm.ox.ac.uk

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The new ELISPOT assay will help control tuberculosis

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Keywords: tuberculosis; ELISPOT; diagnosis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Tuberculosis (TB) control is based on prevention as well as prompt diagnosis and treatment of active TB. Since the latter is usually accomplished quite effectively in developed countries, and since BCG vaccination is of limited effectiveness, better TB control will require improved diagnosis and preventative treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI).^1–3 The reservoir of latently infected individuals is much larger than the number of active TB cases, and includes recently infected contacts of pulmonary TB cases and immigrants from high prevalence regions who acquired infection in their country of origin. This latter group is becoming increasingly important because over half the burden of TB in many low prevalence countries is carried by immigrants,^3–5 and because several higher prevalence countries will soon join the European Union.

Prophylactic treatment of LTBI is highly effective in preventing the subsequent development of active TB;¹ the difficulty lies in identifying who is harbouring latent . . . [Full text of this article]

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Use of ELISPOT for latent tuberculosis: utility in countries with a high burden of infection.

Pravas Pratap Mishra, et al.

Thorax Online, 22 Jan 2004 [Full text]

Author's reply

Ajit Lalvani

Thorax Online, 2 Feb 2004 [Full text]