| Date: | 08/15/2019 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences |
| Referenced Sources: | Nationwide Shortage of Tuberculin Skin Test Antigens: CDC Recommendations for Patient Care and Public Health Practice |
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has been made aware of a current national shortage, and anticipated supply interruption, of APLISOL®, one of two purified-protein derivative (PPD) tuberculin products licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for detecting TB infection. The APLISOL® shortage was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Limited availability of TUBERSOL®, the other FDA-licensed PPD tuberculin product, has also been reported.
In an attempt to help providers and public health programs that currently use APLISOL® manage this situation, CDC has issued an advisory that suggests several operational strategies. CDC notes that switching products or methods might make serial changes in test results difficult to interpret: the apparent conversions of results from negative to positive or reversions from positive to negative could be caused by inherent inter-product or inter-method discordance.
Consistent with the CDC guidance, DPH recommends:
- Substitute interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) blood tests for tuberculin skin tests (TST). (Note that TST is the preferred test for children under 2 years of age.)
- Substitute TUBERSOL® for APLISOL® for skin testing.
- Prioritize skin testing to focus testing on persons at risk for TB infection and/or progression to disease by using a TB Risk Assessment. For persons with TB symptoms or abnormal chest X-ray consistent with active TB disease, evaluate for active TB disease.
- Defer routine skin testing of persons in settings with low risk for exposure until APLISOL® availability is restored.*
*Note: Routine annual testing is no longer recommended for most health care personnel. See (Tuberculosis screening, testing, and treatment of U.S. health-care personnel; MMWR 2019;68:439–443) for more information.
Contact the DPH TB Program at (617) 983-6970 for additional assistance.