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Rh I. Introduction

In January 1992, the CDC Tuberculosis Working Group asked that NIOSH "take the lead" in developing guidelines for appropriate personal respiratory protection, i.e. respirators, to protect workers in health-care facilities from occupational transmission of tuberculosis. In addition to consideration of the complex technical issues of respiratory protection which follow, NIOSH personnel also gave careful thought to our understanding of the current epidemiology and control of tuberculosis, to the directives to NIOSH embodied in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, and to the operational philosophy of prudent public health practice.

A. Current Epidemiology and Control of Tuberculosis―Summary information on the transmission of tuberculosis was reported by CDC in 1991 (1):

Snider and Roper later provided the following caution (2):