Kozhikode: Eight districts in the state will soon have the facility to detect tuberculosis within two hours. The machine, CBNAAT, (Cartridge-Based Nuclic Acid Amplification Test) for confirming the disease much faster has reached the government hospitals in these districts — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kasargod.
“The conventional sputum smear test and nucleic acid test will take somewhere between two days and one week to confirm the disease. By that time the air-borne disease would have spread to others through open coughing,” said district TB officer, Dr P. P. Pramod Kumar.
The fast detection is expected to limit the spread of disease through precautionary measures. “Initially it would be installed in eight districts in appropriate institutions such as medical college, taluk hospital and district TB centre,” said Dr A.P. Parvathy, state TB officer.
According to the latest figures, Kerala has 22,785 TB patients registered in 2015 with maximum cases in Thiruvananthapuram (2,386) and the least in Idukki (556).
The CBNAAT machine will also help in the detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB). “Some patients would show resistance to the medicine, Rifampicin and it could also be traced by the machine. Normal patients will fall under category I and II and DRTB patients should be categorized as category IV,” said Dr K.L. Sarada Devi, HoD, department of Microbiology at Medical College Hospital here. Health authorities said that preference would be given to paediatric patients in testing using CBNAAT. Dr Pramod Kumar added that the machine would start functioning at MCH within a month.
