• Abdulellah Almohaya, Abdulwahab Aldrees, Layan Akkielah, Alshaima Talal Hashim, Fahad Almajid, Turki Binmoammar, and Mazin A Barry.
• From the Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• Ann Saudi Med. 2020 May 1; 40 (3): 191-199.

BackgroundHealth-care workers (HCW) are susceptible to latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). The prevalence of LTBI in HCW in Saudi Arabia has not been reported using the fourth-generation interferon gamma release assay QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus).ObjectiveDetermine the prevalence of LTBI in a large heterogeneous HCW population and assess risk factors for LTBI.DesignCross-sectional and case-control study.SettingTertiary academic hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Patients And MethodsMedical records of HCWs who had QFT-Plus performed between January to December 2018 were reviewed and included in the cross-sectional study. In a subset analysis, randomly selected positive QFT-Plus cases were compared with controls selected from the same areas of work. Univariate and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the significance of other factors to QFT-PLus positivity.Main Outcome MeasuresPrevalence of LTBI in HCWs and potential risk factors for LTBI.Sample Size3024 HCWs in the cross-sectional analysis; 294 cases and 294 controls in the case-control analysis.ResultsTwenty-four percent (n=733) of the HCWs had a positive QFT-Plus. The median (interquartile range) age was 34.0 (31.0-37.1) years, 71% were female, and only 24.8% were of Saudi nationals. Nursing represented 57.7% of HCWs, and 24.7% were working in a non-clinical area. Only 20.3% worked in TB-related departments. A higher risk of LTBI was present in HCWs who were older than 50 years (OR=1.95), from either Philippines (OR=4.7) or the Indian subcontinent (OR=4.1), working as a nurse (OR=2.7), allied health profession (OR=2.1), radiology technician (OR=3.1), or in the emergency room (OR=2.4) or intensive care unit (OR=2.1). In the binary logistic regression, independent predictors for positive QFT-Plus were age group older than 50 years (aOR=2.96), known TB exposure (aOR=1.97), and not receiving BCG at birth (aOR=3.08).LimitationSingle-center, retrospective, possible recall bias for BCG vaccination.ConclusionThe high prevalence of LTBI among HCW emphasizes the need to continue pre-employment screening, especially for employed personnel from high endemic areas, with targeted annual screening for the same group and other identified high-risk groups. These findings can aid in the development of national screening guidelines for LTBI in HCW.Conflict Of InterestNone.

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