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The results, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, show that a new method may help identify people with infectious tuberculosis directly in primary care. The results show that the method was able to detect tuberculosis DNA in exhaled air in 47% of those who had a positive sputum test. It is promising that we can detect infectious tuberculosis directly in the air, especially in settings where sputum samples are difficult to obtain," says Jay Achar, researcher in the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. The researchers also noted that DNA from the tuberculosis bacterium was found in 30% of environmental samples taken in the clinic setting, despite thorough cleaning."