Risk Factors for Positive Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Tests in Children in San Diego, California: Evidence for Boosting and Possible Foodborne Transmission.

Conclusions. We identified several new or reemerging associations with positive TST including cross border travel, staying in a foreign home, and eating raw dairy products. The strong associations with BCG receipt and more recent previous TST may represent falsely positive reactions, booster phenomena, or may be markers for a population that is truly at greater risk for TB infection. Unlike studies conducted in nonborder areas, we found no association between positive TB skin tests and contact with a TB case or a foreign visitor. Efforts to control pediatric TB in San Diego need to address local risk factors including consumption of unpasteurized dairy products and cross-border travel. The interpretation of a positive TST in a young child in San Diego who has received BCG is problematic. tuberculosis, epidemiology, Bacille Calmette-Guerin, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]