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2-hour test pilot to start at Dharavi

Maharashtra’s tuberculosis department in association with FIND will launch a pilot project on World Tuberculosis Day.

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Maharashtra’s tuberculosis department in association with FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), an organisation based in Delhi, will launch a pilot project on World Tuberculosis Day.

The project, RNTCP (revised national tuberculosis control programme) FIND CBNAAT (cartridge based nucleic acid amplification testing), will be launched in Dharavi at Sion hospital’s Urban Health Centre.

Dr Pradeep Gaikwad, joint director state for tuberculosis and leprosy, said: “The project will be launched in two places in the state — Mumbai and Amravati. Mumbai will be the first to start the project and Amravati will start in the first week of April.”

Maharashtra will be the first state to implement the two-year pilot project in the country and if successful will be extended to 18 sites in India, said Gaikwad.

India uses a 125-year-old sputum smear microscopy test for TB. It has got a number of drawbacks such as low sensitivity, inability to determine drug-resistance, especially in HIV cases and children, said Gaikwad.

“In the two-year project a new test will be used known as Xpert MTB/RIF test. It provides highly accurate diagnosis in a single test within two hours that identifies both the presence of TB and drug resistant TB in the patient’s sputum sample,” he said.

Dr Neeraj Raizada, project manager, CBNAAT project, FIND, said:

“The aim is to detect TB and drug resistance TB with a new internationally endorsed rapid test.”

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