Progress and evaluation of diagnosis and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection

Tuberculosis continues to be one of the major infectious diseases threatening to public health.It is estimated that approximately one-third of the world' s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and remain asymptomatic(latent tuberculosis infection,LTBI).Traditional diagnosis and treatment are not ideally suitable for LTBI.According to updated research,interferongamma release assays can be applied to diagnose LTBI,especially better than tuberculin skin test for special patients.It always takes 6-9 months to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis thoroughly in clinical therapy,which lasts for a rather long time.However,an alternative way to treat these patients is to resuscitate dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a short term,and then give traditional therapeutic treatment.As the later procedure is faster and more standardized,it will become the main regime for LTBI in the future. Key words: Latent tuberculosis infection; Diagnosis; Treatment