
Dr Loebinger is actively involved in screening patients for latent tuberculosis prior to starting immune suppressing biological treatments for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. All of these patients should be screened for latent TB (where the infection can lie dormant and therefore can be reactivated) before starting treatment and the latent TB treated.
In fact the present NICE TB guidelines suggest latent TB screening/treatment for such patients and additionally healthcare workers of any age, patients that have been contact traced following a positive pulmonary TB case and new entrants (within last 5 years) from countries with a high incidence of TB.
In addition Dr Loebinger has particular expertise in bronchiectasis, chronic lung infections with fungus and mycobacteria, and repeated lung infections, and receives referrals from all over the UK and internationally. He chairs the infection special advisory group for the British Thoracic Society (BTS), co-chairs the BTS bronchiectasis guideline committee and is on the steering committee for the BTS non-tuberculous mycobacteria and bronchiectasis guidelines.