QIAGEN announced that it welcomed the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reaffirming a previously issued recommendation for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) screening by primary care physicians in populations at increased risk.
The USPSTF issued a final report on May 2 to continue the “B” recommendation for screening of these populations, building on the previous recommendation issued in 2016 by the independent volunteer panel of experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine.
This reaffirmation helps ensure that insured patients in the U.S. from risk groups for TB infection continue to have access to screening with no out-of-pocket costs to them, as the Affordable Care Act requires that insurers provide preventive services with an “A” or “B” recommendation at no cost.
The USPSTF recommendations referred to QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) from QIAGEN as reliable in screening. It also suggested that interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) like QFT-Plus may have advantages in certain patient populations over the tuberculin skin test (TST) in a wider group of people at risk for latent TB infection. This is in line with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
