National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee
Guidelines, publications and position statements
The National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee has developed various guidelines and produces an annual report which is published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence - available from this page.
This document endorsed by the National Tuberculosis Advisory Committee is a general guide to appropriate practice, to be followed in the detection of latent tuberculosis infection.
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) is defined as a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with resistance to at least isoniazid (H) and rifampicin (R), the two key drugs in TB treatment. Very recently, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDRTB) has gained notoriety and is defined as MDRTB with additional resistance to any fluoroquinolone, and to at least one of three injectable second-line anti-TB drugs (capreomycin, kanamycin, and amikacin) used in MDRTB treatment.
BCG vaccination is still considered an important strategy in the National Tuberculosis Programs of countries with a high burden of tuberculosis (TB) because of its benefit to infants but its effect on the control of TB has been limited.
These guidelines include safety recommendations based largely on the Australian/New Zealand Standard 2243.3 Safety in laboratories – Microbiological aspects and containment facilities. However, these standards have been rationalised and PC2 facilities with additional processes and precautions in place are recommended for the majority of TB investigations.
This page contains links to annual reports on tuberculosis notifications in Australia and reports on bacteriologically confirmed cases and drug resistance, produced by the Australian Mycobacterium Laboratory Reference Network from 1994. Both HTML and PDF versions are available.
