THE PROVISION OF TUBERCULOSIS TESTING USING THE TB SPOT TB ASSAY FOR ARMY RECRUITS

1.The Ministry of Defence (MOD) ("the Authority") recruits approximately 400 Gurkha soldiers into the British Army each year.

2.Upon arrival in the UK, to begin training as British soldiers the recruits undergo health immigration screening which due to their origin in Nepal needs to include screening for Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI).

REQUIREMENT

3.The requirement is for the provision of Tuberculosis (TB) testing using the T SPOT®.TB assay.

4. The number of tests required will be approximately 400 Gurkha and 1280 Foreign and Commonwealth recruits per annum. Initial testing is anticipated to commence in Jan 23 and will be repeated annually thereafter until the end of the contract.

4.Research shows that the initial test may be obscured by presence of other conditions which may affect up to approximately 25% of the recruit population. Individuals where this may be the case will require to be retested subsequent to treatment of their conditions. The Authority therefore requires this contract to cover the retesting of a subset of the recruit population estimated at up to 70 individuals, at a later date to be agreed between the Designated Officer and the Contractor.

5.The Authority will contact the contractor and inform them of the dates of the Intake and how many recruits they are expecting.