Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection

Scope

TB detection spans latent infection screening (interferon-gamma release assay or tuberculin skin test - detecting immune sensitisation without active disease) and active disease confirmation (sputum/tissue microscopy for acid-fast bacilli, culture, and nucleic acid amplification testing) - these answer fundamentally different clinical questions and are not interchangeable
TB remains a major global cause of infectious disease mortality, with detection strategy heavily influenced by whether the clinical question is screening (asymptomatic, high-risk/pre-immunosuppression populations) or diagnosing symptomatic active disease

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