When is referral of Heaf test positive schoolchildren worth while? Prospective study
BMJ 1996; 313 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.313.7059.726 (Published 21 September 1996) Cite this as: BMJ 1996;313:726- Helen Booth, senior registrara,
- Christine Pollitt, paediatric registrar Christina Jessen, senior registrar in community paediatrics Andrew Cant, consultant in paediatric infectious diseasesb,
- E Christina Jessen, consultant respiratory physiciana,
- David J Hendrick, consultant respiratory physiciana,
- Andrew J Cant
- a Department of Respiratory Medicine, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE,
- b Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases
- Correspondence to: Dr Cant.
- Accepted 17 June 1996
Recent guidelines for controlling and preventing tuberculosis recommend that no further action is required for children with a grade 2 reaction to Heaf testing in the school pre-BCG screening programme.1 Fifty seven per cent of district health authorities, however, still recommend referral for such children.2 Furthermore, no guidance is given regarding contact tracing of children who are confirmed to be tuberculin positive but who have no signs or symptoms of clinical disease. We prospectively studied the results of screening children referred to our childhood tuberculosis clinic after a positive school Heaf test from January 1991 to August 1994 and tracing the contacts of these children.
Methods and results
Newcastle Health Authority currently recommends referral of children with a positive Heaf test result of grade 2 or above to our childhood tuberculosis clinic. Tuberculin sensitivity is confirmed with a Mantoux test: 0.1 ml of 1:1000 purified protein derivative, read after 72 hours. …