QIAGEN N.V. had announced newly published clinical and health economic data supporting the use of its QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) blood test for detecting tuberculosis (TB) infection, particularly in immunocompromised and other high-risk populations. The global QuantiFERON World TB Day event will take place online on March 24, 2026, with two identical sessions to enable participation across regions. A study recently published in BMC Public Health evaluated TB infection screening strategies among adults living with HIV in Thailand and found that QFT-Plus testing reduced the modeled lifetime risk of progression to active TB by 41% compared with the tuberculin skin test (TST), while also lowering overall lifetime healthcare costs.
More accurate detection of TB infection can help clinicians initiate preventive therapy earlier and support more efficient use of healthcare resources. This study builds on a strong and expanding body of clinical data supporting the use of QFT-Plus across diverse patient populations. More than 2,500 published studies have demonstrated the test?s performance, with over 125 million QuantiFERON-TB tests used worldwide, including in populations at increased risk of developing active TB disease such as those receiving immunosuppressive therapies.
Accurate detection of TB infection in these groups remains critical to enable timely preventive treatment and reduce the risk of disease progression. TB remains one of the world?s deadliest infectious diseases despite being preventable and treatable. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 10 million people develop active TB each year.
Individuals with weakened immune systems face significantly higher risks of progressing from TB infection to active disease. The CPD-accredited QuantiFERON World TB Day program will bring together international experts in TB diagnostics, clinical care and public health to discuss advances in TB infection detection and prevention. Sessions will address the performance of TB infection testing in immunocompromised patients, the role of preventive treatment in national TB control programs, and emerging insights from clinical research and public health initiatives.
Speakers will also share perspectives from clinical practice, public health programs and TB survivors. QIAGEN continues to invest in expanding the QuantiFERON portfolio and improving laboratory workflows for TB infection testing. QIAGEN is advancing development of a fifth generation of QuantiFERON designed to further enhance performance, while also exploring the use of AI to help identify individuals with latent TB infection who are at higher risk of progressing to active disease.
Early research indicates that AI-driven models combining QFT-Plus results with clinical factors may help improve risk prediction and support more targeted preventive treatment. In addition, QIAGEN is strengthening its automation offering through its partnership with Diasorin, enabling laboratories to run QuantiFERON testing on LIAISON automated immunodiagnostic systems to support scalable, high-throughput TB infection testing.
