Qiagen announced that its QuantiFeron-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) blood test for detecting latent tuberculosis (TB) has been recommended in national screening guidelines from Nigeria's health ministry.
Nigeria is the first high-burden country to exclusively embrace interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) for latent TB screening of at-risk individuals in tuberculosis control programs, Qiagen noted. The national guidelines are based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for screening, and including IGRA tests will help avoid progression to active TB, Dr. Adebola Lawanson, national coordinator of the TB program at the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health, said in a statement from the company.
In October, Qiagen announced that the QFT-Plus test was included in a list of diagnostics in the international Stop TB Partnership Global Drug Facility product catalog.