Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The two most common types of tests to screen for this disease are the Mantoux PPD tuberculin skin test, which is generally considered the most...

Tuberculin tests are used to detect the presence tubercle bacilli, the pathogen which causes tuberculosis (TB), a serious infectious disease that attacks the lung. Once well under control in the Western World, more than 400,000 new cases of this re-...

The original tuberculin discovered by Koch was a glycerine extract of the tubercle bacilli and was developed as a remedy for tuberculosis, but it was ineffective in this role. Clemens von Pirquet discovered that patients who had previously received...

Robert Koch (1843-1910), who isolated Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882 and proved that it caused tuberculosis, announced at a medical congress in Berlin eight years later that he had developed a substance capable of preventing the growth of the tubercle bacilli, thus arresting the disease....

In 1996, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended targeted tuberculin skin testing (TST) of children while discouraging routine TST of children without risk factors for tuberculosis (TB). Recent studies have provided evidence in support of the targeted TST and recommendations that favor...