Marila Laura Gennaro, MD
Marila Gennaro and her team are performing a study to evaluate the performance of the VIDAS® Interferon Gamma (IFN-γ) Release Assay (TB-IGRA) assay, intended to aid in the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of death in the world and poses significant economic and health care burdens on the global population.
When a person with pulmonary TB coughs or sneezes, water droplets containing M. tuberculosis are expelled into the air. Persons can become infected with TB when they inhale air containing these water droplets. However, not everyone infected becomes ill. Therefore two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection (LTBI) and TB disease. Identification and treatment of LTBI can substantially reduce the risk of developing active disease.
This study is supported by funding from BioMérieux.