G'day Ridge,
You are right.
I also worry a little when a journalist demonstrates his lack of knowledge in the area with simple mistakes. He states that the current TST (Mantoux) test can take weeks. As we all know that is just total rubbish. The TST test MUST be read within 72 hours - otherwise it is totally useless. Also you can't perform repeated TST tests over a short time span as each test increases the probablility of a false positive.
On another note I have now had time to read the full article. If you read it carefully then this test is NOT aimed at diagnostic testing of the population or high risk groups but at identifying which strain of TB a particular outbreak consists of. I presume that the gene test is either too expensive or too difficult to use for LTBI testing - which is QFTBs market.
The rest of the news in the article is good for Cellestis. The fact that the UK are launching a tb action plan next year is very interesting. We are curently awaiting the US CDC report on the usage of QFTB in the US tb control plans (due within the next six weeks). I would guess that the CDC recommendations will flow through to the action plans of other countries (such as the UK).
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