Should We Treat People Who Have Been Exposed To TB?

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 20 May 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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In today's environment of escalating health-care costs, value for money has become an important part of the overall assessment of new medical interventions.

In North America, progress towards elimination of tuberculosis (TB) has slowed down in the last decade, in part due to a large influx of immigrant populations exposed to TB in the developing nations. In today's environment of escalating costs, it becomes important to address which types of interventions give us better value for our money. As such, we conducted a study to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various interventions in patients exposed to TB and who became infected with silent or latent TB infection.

If patients exposed to TB have a positive skin test, then treating them and following up contacts is good value for the money spent. However, if they are foreign-born or have had a previous anti-TB vaccination, or have a small reaction to skin testing then treatment of silent or latent TB infection,, is not a good way to spend health care dollars.

This issue will be discussed in Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 3,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

For more information please go to: http://www.bccdc.ca or http://www.core.ubc.ca

Value in Health Volume 11 Issue 5
ABSTRACT

http://www.ispor.org