{"id":354590,"date":"2026-03-24T00:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/354590\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T00:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:10:30","slug":"test-identifies-active-infectious-tuberculosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/354590\/","title":{"rendered":"Test Identifies Active, Infectious Tuberculosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

On World Tuberculosis Day<\/a>, March 24, a test developed by UC Davis Health could soon speed up diagnosis and help prevent its spread.<\/p>\n

Researchers in the\u00a0UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine<\/a>\u00a0have created a new tuberculosis blood test that can detect the active, infectious form of the disease. The discovery enables faster diagnosis and treatment. It also helps prevent the spread of tuberculosis (TB) by quickly identifying those who are contagious.<\/p>\n

Current TB screening tests do not differentiate between active TB disease and a latent (inactive) infection. Positive TB tests must be followed up with additional tests. However, these additional tests can also have limitations. For example, sputum tests can miss TB outside the lungs, and children usually can\u2019t easily produce the sputum samples needed for accurate testing.<\/p>\n

TB Kills More Than 1 Million<\/p>\n

TB is caused by the bacterium\u00a0Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It spreads when a person with an active infection\u00a0coughs, sneezes, or speaks\u00a0\u2014 putting close contacts like family, friends, coworkers and classmates at the greatest risk.<\/p>\n

TB most often attacks the lungs but can strike almost any part of the body. Although it is\u00a0generally curable\u00a0with a long course of antibiotics, completing treatment can be difficult.<\/p>\n

Despite being treatable, TB remains one of the world\u2019s deadliest infectious diseases.<\/p>\n

In 2024, an estimated\u00a01.23 million people\u00a0around the globe died from the disease, and about 10.7 million fell ill. In the U.S., more than\u00a010,000 cases\u00a0were diagnosed \u2014\u00a02,000\u00a0of them in California.<\/p>\n

The largest number of new TB cases occurred in South-East Asia, with India accounting for\u00a025% of the global total.<\/p>\n

\u201cTB is often a disease of poverty, especially in developing countries,\u201d explained\u00a0Imran H. Khan, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. \u201cAnd like most other poverty-related problems, it is a major cause of human suffering worldwide,\u201d he said. His desire to help alleviate global poverty was a key motivation for developing the new test.<\/p>\n

Current Screening Tests Cannot Tell if TB is Active or Latent<\/p>\n

According to UC Davis Health, providers use\u00a0two main types of tests<\/a>\u00a0to help diagnose TB:<\/p>\n

Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test.\u00a0In this test, a small amount of sterile tuberculin protein is injected into the skin. If the\u00a0TB skin test\u00a0shows a bump within two to three days, it indicates exposure to TB.<\/p>\n

Interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA).\u00a0This blood test assesses how the immune system responds when a small amount of the patient\u2019s blood is mixed with TB proteins. A positive test result indicates the blood has reacted to TB proteins, signaling infection.<\/p>\n

The challenge is that neither test type distinguishes between active TB (the patient has the disease) or latent infection (the patient had exposure to TB but is not currently sick). Only active TB disease is contagious.<\/p>\n

Khan explains: \u201cAbout 35% to 40% of the general population in TB endemic countries is latently infected \u2014 meaning they have been exposed \u2014 but they may never develop TB. A test that gives a positive result with latent infection is not useful in finding active TB cases, in which someone might have the disease and inadvertently spread it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to these diagnostic challenges, Khan and his lab at UC Davis Health developed a blood test that can detect an active TB infection.<\/p>\n

As with other TB blood tests, like the IGRA, the new test measures the immune system\u2019s response to TB proteins. Unlike them, it specifically detects antibodies associated with active tuberculosis. This means that a positive test identifies an active TB infection, addressing a key shortcoming of other tests.<\/p>\n

TB Test Performed Well at Clinical Trial in India<\/p>\n

Khan worked with a medical technology company to adapt the test for routine clinical use. The test\u2019s effectiveness was evaluated in a clinical trial in India from 2019 to 2023. More than 600 people participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe test performed surprisingly well,\u201d Khan said. \u201cIn addition to the expected good performance in adult pulmonary TB, which accounts for approximately 60% to 70% of TB infections, it was also able to identify harder-to-detect TB cases in children as well as TB that was in other organs in the body, not in the lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan submitted data analysis and a clinical trial report to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR is India\u2019s top institution for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research. If approved by ICMR, the test could expand to neighboring countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just look at India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, those countries alone have about 30% to 40% of the entire world\u2019s TB population,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n

To commercialize the test, Khan co-founded\u00a0AppGenex Diagnostics, a Bay Area startup in Mountain View.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can stop the spread of TB by more easily identifying active infections, we can make a significant difference in decreasing global numbers of this devastating disease,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n

World Tuberculosis Day<\/a> is celebrated on March 24 every year to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On World Tuberculosis Day, March 24, a test developed by UC Davis Health could soon speed up diagnosis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28658,163,85,4746,46,104971,172184],"class_list":["post-354590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-diagnostic-testing","tag-health","tag-il","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-israel","tag-tb-tuberculosis","tag-uc-davis-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}