Volume 12, Number 5—May 2006
THEME ISSUE
Tuberculosis Special Section
Dispatch
Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis in Military Recruits
Grace Freier*, Allen Wright*, Gregory Nelson*, Eric Brenner†, Sundari Mase‡, Sybil Tasker§, Karen L. Matthews¶, and Bruce K. Bohnker¶
Table 2
Tuberculin skin test (TST) reactor rate by exposure duration
| Contact duration | Total | Old reactors | TSTs placed | New reactor | Reactor rate (%) | Group reactor rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casual contacts* | Likely none | 25 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 5.26 | 3.2 |
| Possible | 256 | 13 | 233 | 7 | 3.00 | ||
| Close contacts | Unknown | 34 | 1 | 33 | 1 | 3.03 | 9.09 |
| >3 weeks† Sep 13–Oct 12 | 70 | 1 | 70 | 3 | 4.29 | ||
| 1–3 weeks Oct 12–21 | 42 | 0 | 31 | 6 | 19.35 | ||
| <1 week Oct 21–26 | 12 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 33.33 | ||
| Total | 439 | 15 | 395 | 21 | 5.32 |
*The close contacts were more likely to convert than the incidental contacts. Risk ratio (RR) 2.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22–6.74, p = 0.011.
†The close contacts with >3 weeks of exposure were less likely to convert than those with <3 weeks of exposure. RR 0.19, 95% CI 0.05–0.66, p = 0.0032.
