Managing tuberculosis infection in children in the USA: an update.

The rate of tuberculosis (TB) disease has steadily declined in the last two decades in the USA, and over two-thirds of all cases now occur in foreign-born persons. Further declines in the incidence of TB will be most impacted by identifying and treating persons with TB infection. However, difficulties in accessing care, poor specificity of diagnostic tests and long courses of therapy historically have led to suboptimal screening of groups at high risk for infection, false-positive test results from cross-reaction with the bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine and low treatment completion rates, respectively. This article reviews newer testing and treatment strategies for TB infection emphasizing risk and benefits of testing and treating.