TUBERCULOSIS

Skin Testing

TB skin testing is no longer routinely recommended. TB skin testing is now only recommended in Florida for groups at high risk for TB disease and groups at high risk to progress from infection to disease.  Therefore, OCHD only test contacts to active cases of TB.  Please contact your Family Physician for testing.

Anyone can get TB; people of all races and nationalities, the rich and poor, and at any age. But for many reasons, some groups of people are at higher risk to get active TB disease. The groups that are at high risk include:

• People with HIV infection (the AIDS virus)
• People in close contact with those known to be infectious with TB
• People with medical conditions that make the body less able to protect itself from disease (for example: diabetes, the dust disease silicosis, or people undergoing treatment with drugs that can suppress the immune system, such as long-term use of corticosteroids)
• Foreign-born people from countries with high TB rates
• Some racial or ethnic minorities
• People who work in or are residents of long-term care facilities (nursing homes, prisons, some hospitals)
• Health care workers and others such as prison guards
• People who are mal-nourished
• Alcoholics and IV drug users