To the Editor: Graham and colleagues correctly assert that medical students are at increased risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in settings where they are treating patient groups with a high prevalence of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).1 This is well illustrated by the increasing prevalence of latent TB infection among medical students in their later clinical years in countries where community TB incidence markedly exceeds that of Australia.2
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- 1 Hunter New England Area Health Service, Newcastle, NSW.
- 2 University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW.
- 1. Graham M, Howley TM, Pierce RJ, Johnson PD. Should medical students be routinely offered BCG vaccination? Med J Aust 2006; 185: 324-326. <MJA full text>
- 2. Teixeira EG, Menzies D, Comstock GW, et al. Latent tuberculosis infection among undergraduate medical students in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2005; 9: 841-847.
- 3. Jensen PA, Lambert LA, Iademarco MF, Ridzon R; CDC. Guidelines for preventing the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in health-care settings, 2005. MMWR Recomm Rep 2005; 54(17): 1-141.
- 4. Fine PEM. Immunities in and to tuberculosis: implications for pathogenesis and vaccination. In: Porter JDH, McAdam KPWJ, editors. Tuberculosis: back to the future. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
- 5. Talbot EA, Perkins MD, Silva SF, Fotheringham R. Disseminated bacille Calmette-Guerin disease after vaccination: case report and review. Clin Infect Dis 1997; 24: 1139-1146.