The WHO has published new recommendations related to the use of IGRAs as a replacement of the tuberculin skin test (TST) to detect latent TB in low- and middle-income countries.
The key recommendations are:
- IGRAs and the TST cannot accurately predict the risk of infected individuals developing active TB;
- Neither IGRAs nor the TST should be used for the diagnosis of active TB disease;
- IGRAs are more costly and technically complex to do than the TST. Given comparable performance but increased cost, replacing the TST by IGRAs in resource-constrained settings is not recommended.