a study of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis in household contacts of patients with active tuberculosis in kurdistan region of iraq: a brief report

Background: tuberculosis (tb) is a major public health problem. close household-contacts are at high risk of infections, particularly latent tb (ltbi). objectives: the study aimed to investigate the prevalence of ltbi in household-contacts of active tb patients. methods: a total of 150 household contacts with active tb patients were recruited. blood samples were collected and tested for the presence of ltbi by quantiferon-tb-gold-plus assay. results: amongst those recruited in this study, 62/150 (41.3%) were positive. amongst the positive subjects, 33/62 (53%) were male. four samples gave indeterminate results including two males and two females. conclusions: the prevalence of ltbi was high in household-contacts. for successful tb control, close screening of contacts should be considered.