Tuberculosis risk for hospital employees: analysis of a five-year tuberculin skin testing program.
J Berman,
M L Levin,
S T Orr and
L Desi
This study of hospital employee tuberculin conversion rateswas undertaken in a 516-bed urban general hospital to determineif employment in such a hospital placed employees at risk ofinfection with tuberculosis. Data collected on the tuberculinstatus of employees from 1971 through 1976 indicated that thefive-year conversion rate for all employees in a hospital-widetesting program was 7.1 per cent. Employees at greatest riskfor conversion were non-White, age 46 through 64, in the lowestsocioeconomic quintile, and employed in the Laundry, Housekeeping,and Engineering and Maintenance Departments. It was concludedthat the higher than expected employee conversion rate was notattributable to exposure to infectious patients, but to a combinationof the booster effect in serial tuberculin testing, use of amultiple puncture device for skin tests, and exposure to tuberculosisin the community.
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