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Tuberculin skin testing

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Tuberculosis

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Abstract

In 1891, Robert Koch, following his identification of the human tubercle bacillus, observed a skin reaction in animals that he felt could culminate in the development of an agent to treat TB [1]. Koch observed that animals already infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis developed a self limited nodule at a skin inoculation site which differed from the progressive lesions produced in those animals not previously infected. He noted the same reaction with both live and killed bacilli and also with a concentrated, heat killed filtrate of organisms. This filtrate became referred to as old tuberculin (OT). Despite Koch’s initial optimism, little success resulted using OT as a therapy in TB infections.

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Lutwick, L.I. (1995). Tuberculin skin testing. In: Lutwick, L.I. (eds) Tuberculosis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2869-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2869-6_8

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