Tuberculin skin test screening of high school entrants in the Long Beach Unified School District

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) tuberculosis screening program for students who entered the ninth grade in September 1996. A recent study suggested that school-based TB skin testing is cost beneficial only if 20% of the students who are tested have tuberculosis infection. The results of this study indicated that of the 3,628 LBUSD students who were tested and had their TB skin tests read, 218 (6.0%) had positive TB skin test results. Since the incidence rate of TB skin test reactors was less than 20%, it was concluded that the LBUSD school-based TB screening program was not cost beneficial.;An analysis of demographic factors including gender, country of origin, and race/ethnicity suggested that targeted screening of only those LBUSD students who were foreign born would yield a sufficient number of tuberculin reactors to be deemed cost beneficial.