TB culture lab to come up at MLNMC
A state-of-the-art TB Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) Lab would soon come up at Moti Lal Nehru Medical College (MLNMC) in Prayagraj. The move is aimed at further strengthening the fight against tuberculosis (TB) and helping identify TB patients so that timely and effective treatment can be ensured to them at the earliest.
The lab would be set up in the microbiology department of MLNMC at a cost of Rs 68 lakh to conduct advance diagnostics tests for tuberculosis and optimise the management of multi drug resistant (MDR)-TB, officials said.
“The lab will prove to be very useful in preventing the spread of TB. This will particularly benefit MDR-TB patients. The biggest advantage of the lab will be that timely assessment of the correct condition of the patients will be possible. Apart from this, it would become possible to identify the exact drug which would be more beneficial given the current situation of the ailment in an individual patient,” said lab in-charge Dr Reena Sachan.
She said the lab would also significantly cut down the waiting time of the test results from the current six to eight weeks to a mere two to three weeks.
India accounts for 26% of TB cases in the world. In India, notifications of people newly diagnosed with TB increased 74% from 1.2 million to 2.2 million between 2013 and 2019. Despite the increase in notifications, there is still a gap in the number of people newly diagnosed and reported cases in the world and the estimated number of people who would have developed TB in 2019. In the case of India, this gap accounts for 17%, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report says. This gap is due to a combination of underreporting of people diagnosed with TB and underdiagnosis (if people with TB cannot access health care or are not diagnosed when they do).
In 2018, the estimated TB incidence was 26,90,000. An estimated 9,700 HIV positive people died due to TB disease, and an estimated 440,000 HIV negative people also died because of it.
WHO Global TB report lists India at 38th rank in the number of MDR-TB patients per lakh population (9.6).
Experts say that resistance to anti-TB drugs can occur because of faulty prescriptions, which were previously rampant in the private sector but are now being managed through better engaging the private sector for detection and treatment of TB. Resistance can also occur if the treatment is discontinued before the prescribed time. To address the issue, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)—now renamed National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme— conducts information, education and communication (IEC) activities to increase awareness in the public.