Evaluation of Performance of Quantiferon Test in Suspected Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Abassia Chest Hospital

Abstract

B is a contagious and often severe airborne disease caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), TB typically affects the lungs, but it also can affect any other organ of the body. It is usually treated with a regimen of drugs taken for 6 months to 2 years depending on the type of infection (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2014), overall, a relatively small proportion of people infected with M. tuberculosis will de¬velop TB disease. However, the probability of developing TB is much higher among people infected with HIV (WHO, 2014), the majority of TB cases occurred in large urban centers, amongst young adults, those from countries with high TB burdens, and those with social risk factors for TB (Annual report on tuberculosis surveillance in the UK, 2009).