Hi-tech TB machine lies idle at BMC hospital

“We have not been able to use the machine as we need to develop the infrastructure to operate it. We need to establish an environment of negative pressure,which will be done in a hi-tech laboratory,including two bio-safety cabins and a fridge,among other things. The contractor had promised to do the work in May,but it got delayed,” said Rajendra Nanavare,Medical Superintendent of the Sewree hospital.

As a result,the civic hospital has been sending more than 100 patients to the state-owned J J Hospital and the private Hinduja Hospital every month for further diagnostic tests. Typically,the patients are tested for TB by taking a sample of sputum and conducting a smear test. Of the patients diagnosed with TB,5-9 per cent are diagnosed with multi-drug resistant TB,which can only be diagnosed with the help of the culture test machine,said doctors.

A doctor at J J Hospital said,“Patients who do not respond to conventional treatment are sent to either J J or Hinduja to detect if they have multi-drug resistant TB. The incidences of such TB have increased manifold in the past five years.”

“We receive patients who usually come to get tests done for multi-drug resistant TB,but as our machine is not working we send them to J J Hospital and Hinduja,” said Nanavare.

While J J and Hinduja are the only hospitals in the city which have the specialized machine to diagnose the TB bacilli’s deadly variants in less than a month,other private hospitals usually take over two months.