A study was recently conducted to support evidence-based decision-making in Thailand and to assist policy makers in low- and middle-income countries to evaluate screening options for detecting tuberculosis (TB) infection.

This analysis modeled a single tuberculosis infection screening in adults living with HIV and predicted lifetime costs and health outcomes based on epidemiological and cost data from Thailand. Published study results show that interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs), such as Qiagen’s QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus), are associated with a reduced lifetime risk of progression to active tuberculosis, approximately 41% lower than IGRAs. tuberculin skin test (TST), also show that despite high initial testing costs, the predicted lifetime costs per individual screened are low.

Lower downstream expenditures for treatment, follow-up, adverse event management, diagnostic confirmation, and active TB case management contributed to the overall cost difference. The study further pointed out that the high false-positive rate associated with TST in the BCG-vaccinated population is a major contributing factor to unnecessary preventive treatment and increased utilization of health care resources.

The findings were highlighted at a symposium session discussing the theme of optimizing testing for tuberculosis infection in high-risk populations at the 10th International Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Coalition Asia-Pacific Regional Conference (APRC 2026).

“This study provides important evidence to inform discussions of national screening guidelines and resource allocation in high-burden settings,” said Dr. Justin Chai, Director of Medical Affairs at QIAGEN. “These results highlight the potential value of more economically efficient screening approaches in supporting TB prevention in people living with HIV. At the same time, operational considerations such as infrastructure, workforce training, and logistics remain important, and further prospective cohort studies will be important to better understand real-world feasibility.”

QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus is the world’s leading Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) blood test, with millions of tests performed annually. This test has established itself as a superior alternative to the dated tuberculosis skin test (TST). TST is less effective in identifying TB infection in BCG-vaccinated people (common in patients from high-TB countries) and in patients who are less likely to return for TST interpretation. QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus has helped patients and healthcare providers around the world by reducing the number of visits and turnaround time for a single blood draw.