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Dixie E. Snider, Jr, MD

JAMA. 1985;253(23):3438-3439.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE CENTERS for Disease Control and the American Thoracic Society recommend tuberculin testing of persons from countries with high rates of tuberculosis.¹ Many of these persons have a history of vaccination with bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), which makes the interpretation of tuberculin skin tests more difficult. Vaccination with BCG usually leads to the acquisition of tuberculin sensitivity, but the degree of tuberculin sensitivity is highly variable, depending on the vaccine strain used, vaccine dosage, method of vaccine administration, age at vaccination, nutritional status of the vaccine, and factors known to influence the reaction to tuberculin skin tests. The persistence of tuberculin sensitivity during the months and years after BCG vaccination is also highly variable and, in addition to the previously mentioned factors, depends on the frequency of tuberculin testing after vaccination, frequency of repeat vaccinations, exposure to nontuberculosis mycobacteria, and infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.^2-11

There is no reliable way . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Division of Tuberculosis Control, Center for Prevention Services, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Technical Information Services, Center for Prevention Services, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333 (Dr Snider).

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