Screening for Tuberculosis in Health Care Workers: Experience in an Italian Teaching Hospital.

Health care workers (HCW) are particularly at risk of acquiring tuberculosis (TB), even in countries with low TB incidence. Therefore, TB screening in HCW is a useful prevention strategy in countries with both low and high TB incidence. Tuberculin skin test (TST) is widely used although it suffers of low specificity; on the contrary, the in vitro enzyme immunoassay tests (IGRA) show superior specificity and sensitivity but are more expensive.