New Test for Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB may infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs. Globally, TB is the second most common cause of death from infectious disease. Global significance is mainly due to drug-resistant TB continuous to evolve. While many researches are aimed at trying to find drugs to combat TB and some researches are seeking improved way to detect it.

According to Medpage Today, new rapid and accurate tests for extensively drug-resistant TB have been unveiled. The tests may reduce the time it takes to identify various form of drug resistance in TB to under a week.

The first new method, called the Line Probe Assay (LPA), detects common mutations behind drug resistance in only one to two days. The second, called the Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS) test, took five to seven. While the third method, based on pyrosequencing, took as little as one day or as long as a few hundred days.

Reference: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/358322#ixzz2funBOFUo

Jasim sabith

Sr Lecturer