HILDEN, Germany, and GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that QuantiFERON-TB® Gold Plus (QFT-Plus), the gold standard in accurate, cost-effective testing for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, has been adopted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for use in screening migrants for the infection.

As the United Nations migration agency, IOM coordinates comprehensive healthcare for about 20 million migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers around the world. The IOM tender covers use of QFT-Plus in 16 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East facing public health challenges from TB as part of their 5-year Global Plan to End TB 2016-2020.

QIAGEN is collaborating with governments and international institutions, non-governmental organizations and commercial partners in fighting the global epidemic of tuberculosis. Experts around the world are increasingly recognizing that accurate, laboratory-based screening for latent TB infections – which can progress to active, contagious tuberculosis – is essential to effective TB control. So far in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) all have endorsed latent TB screening with interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) such as QIAGEN’s fourth-generation QFT-Plus and third-generation QuantiFERON-TB® Gold (QFT). Furthermore, the International Panel Physicians Association (IPPA) has endorsed QFT-Plus specifically.