Tuberculosis surveillance program: a nursing home experience

Tuberculosis surveillance efforts in the nursing home for elderly persons need organization into an effective program. The ability to tally results of testing gives reliable parameters for comparison and may alert practitioners to early active disease presentation and transmission within the setting. Such efforts based on current research and recommendations ensure provision of prudent and useful standards of elderly care. Our experience during a 10-year period shows that tuberculosis may be an active problem for nursing home populations.