THE EVOLUTION - LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF TUBERCULOSIS |
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Year : 2017 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 1 | Page : 34-44 |
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The expanding canvas of rapid molecular tests in detection of tuberculosis and drug resistance
Anand Shah, Camilla Rodrigues
Department of Microbiology, P D Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Correspondence Address:
Camilla Rodrigues Department of Microbiology, P D Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/astrocyte.astrocyte_63_17
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In many developed countries, tuberculosis (TB) is considered a disease of the past. However, the impact of this disease can be devastating even today, especially in resource poor countries suffering from high burdens of both TB and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). One of the greatest threats to global TB control is the growing prevalence of drug-resistant bacilli. Correctly diagnosing drug-resistant TB patients is more problematic in resource-limited settings as there is no or limited infrastructure for drug susceptibility testing (DST) of TB bacilli. The conventional phenotypic DST method for TB takes weeks before declaring the results and initiating proper anti-TB treatment. The evolution of molecular diagnostic methods has revolutionized the TB diagnostics. These methods are accurate, rapid, easy to perform, and can solve controversial issues related to TB diagnosis as well as drug susceptibility. It is important to link these rapid molecular techniques with the conventional methods to determine the impact of the disease.
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