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RTs have responsibility to their patients

Respiratory Care Weekly, August 9, 2006

RTs with a positive tuberculosis (TB) skin test-even latent cases-should be treated for the disease. TB infection rates are at their lowest ever in the United States, but a lot of healthcare workers emigrated from countries where rates are much higher. In many cases people who test positive for latent TB infection aren't treated until the TB is active, according to the July 13 New England Journal of Medicine.

"It is important that patients be able to trust their healthcare providers to do no harm . . . All healthcare workers in the United States, regardless of their country of birth, must earn that trust by doing everything possible to minimize risk to patients," wrote the authors, who are infectious diseases experts.

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