Mantoux test

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2006

For most facilities (if not all) in the US you must be tested or shown negative for tuburculosis. If you are a positive reactor, you must demonstrate proof, either by a CXR/use of antitubercular meds, before being permitted to work here.

This is a requirement also for US nurses, and generally for attending any school in the USA (including children going to elementary schools, etc). Foreign nurses are not singled out on this requirement.

Carolina (who got BCG'd in Cornwall as a child, and gets lots of guff everytime she changes jobs or attended school)

english_nurse · Jul 20, 2006

i know this is going to be a problem for me as ive had the bcg myself in 2001!

apparently this isnt enough though and i must have the mantoux test anyway, followed by an chest xray to discount tb

so i am off to a clinic in solihul on monday lucky me lol

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2006

I had a mantoux test done in a clinic in London-I will see if I can find the address and number. It cost me 40 pounds in nov, so may help the people from the south. I had a BCG done but I am always neg.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2006

Dont have a chest xray done as they do it at the embassy medical so you dont want waste any money.

english_nurse · Jul 20, 2006

yeah, ogp tell you to have the mantoux before the medical so you can use the xray taken there as proof you dont have active tb

plus 2 xrays so close together isnt that good really!

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2006

The xray from the medical is sealed and you carry it with you sealed to the US

letina · Jul 21, 2006

I had my pre-employment health screen 4 weeks ago which included a PPD/Mantoux test. I tested positive so they did a booster 2 weeks later which was positive again. I asked the Doc at the employee health clinic if this was maybe due to having had a BCG as a teenager, but she said the BCG vaccine is only good for 7/10 years and my positive result meant that I had been exposed to TB. She said I needed a chest X-Ray so I told her I'd had one in April for immigration purposes. I took my X-Ray with me for her to look at, but she said I still had to get another done. She advised me to start Isoniazid Preventative Therapy but I declined, because after some research, I discovered I would be a high risk for the side effects due to my age. The therapy is not mandatory here in Florida and it hasn't prevented me from working.

english_nurse · Jul 21, 2006

thats interesting i thought it might stop you working to be honest

thanks

Fiona59 · Jul 22, 2006

Just to let you all know that everywhere I've worked in western Canada, I've been required to have a Mantoux. For those that test positive a chest xray is done and the results kept on record.

My current employer recalls us every two years to have a Mantoux due to the rate of TB in the population that uses our facilities.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2006

You know I was negative and I am always negative and I had a BCG, yet I was treated as though I was positive because I was from the UK-I did not understand that

Fiona59 · Jul 23, 2006

Well, look at it like the employer is concerned about your welfare??

TB is more wide spread in inner city practices than most of the general population would understand. Somehow refugees with TB are accepted and wind up being treated. TB is also present on some reservations and in the far north. You just never know when its going to pop up.

Well fed, well housed, people like to think its a "dead" disease or only happens in the third world. Its in North America and care is worth taking.