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This is an archive article published on August 6, 2012

Machine under trial may reduce drug-resistant TB detection time

If the results of a field trial started by the Health Ministry are favourable,doctors will no longer need to wait for months before starting a patient on a regimen for drug-resistant TB

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If the results of a field trial started by the Health Ministry are favourable,doctors will no longer need to wait for months before starting a patient on a regimen for drug-resistant TB,thus losing valuable time in a critical case. The ministry has initiated field trials for a nucleic acid-based test for the TB bacterium that can detect whether the strain is drug resistant or not within 48 to 72 hours. The machine,called TB GeneXpert,is currently under trial at 18 sites across 13 states.

By using a DNA probe a DNA based prototype whose genetic composition is similar to that of a drug resistant bacterium,it can analyse the nucleic acid composition of the TB bacterium to find out if it has genes for drug resistance. Each machine costs Rs 8 lakh.

According to latest WHO figures,India has the largest incidence of drug resistant TB cases,amounting to more than two per cent of fresh cases and 15 per cent of re-treatment cases. In 2010,the total number of drug-resistant TB cases was approximately 63,000.

The machine will drastically reduce the time during which a patient is put on first and second line TB drugs only to realise several months later that none would anyway have worked because there is a drug resistant TB strain at work. At present doctors send samples for solid and liquid culture tests to detect drug resistance. Though remarkably accurate,both tests take very long time.

TB GeneXpert trials on at

Ranchi,Bundu Jharkhand

Indore Madhya Pradesh

Jodhpur,Badgaon Rajasthan

Vizianagaram,Parvatipuram Andhra Pradesh

Amravati,Dharavi Maharashtra

Bilaspur Chhattisgarh

Rohtak Haryana

New Tehri Uttarakhand

Kamrup,Hajo Assam

Koraput Orissa

Pavagada Andhra Pradesh

Delhi

 

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