Nailing it: New machine to detect tuberculosis in two hours

GeneXpert was formally unveiled at Indus Hospital on Friday.

KARACHI: An early detection machine for tuberculosis, GeneXpert, was formally unveiled at the Indus Hospital on Friday. The machine is capable of generating the results of a tuberculosis test within two hours.

A large number of doctors and experts gathered at the seminar to learn more about the disease as well as the new technology to be introduced. Dr Zafar Zaidi, the director of medical services at Indus Hospital, addressed the gathering along with Dr Altaf Ahmed, a clinical microbiologist at Indus Hospital and president of Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan.

GeneXpert is one of the newest technologies to come to Pakistan. “It is highly endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” said Dr Ahmed. “This is a major milestone for Indus Hospital and a huge breakthrough for Pakistan’s healthcare system.”

Many tuberculosis patients do not wait for the test results to appear and leave treatment midway. The GeneXpert machine, MTB/RIF Assay, is an integrated hands-free sputum processing and real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with rapid, on-demand, near patient technology to simultaneously detect tuberculosis and Rifampin resistance. It is a highly effective and user-friendly system which can detect tuberculosis directly from the sputum in less than two hours. According to Dr Ahmed, despite having the sixth highest number of people with tuberculosis in Pakistan - nearly 250,000 new cases every year - the disease is still diagnosed with outdated tools, such as direct sputum microscopy and chest radiographs.

Most of cases of this disease are misdiagnosed mainly because of this reason. This means that many patients are going through different treatments than the one prescribed only for tuberculosis. It is a guessing game based on what the doctor deems right, said Dr Ahmed.

What happens eventually is that the patient develops a multi-drug resistant - tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is the result of inappropriate treatment or misjudgement by the doctor.

Dr Ahmed pointed out that, according to rough estimates, patients with MDR-TB are increasing by the day. Presently, Pakistan has up to 6,000 people suffering from this disease.

He suggested that opening up laboratories for tuberculosis tests is the best way to deal with it. “As this is not a profit-making test, not many hospitals opt for it, which ultimately makes the patients suffer.”

Discussing a recent report by the WHO, he pointed out that misleading serology tests for tuberculosis are worsening the epidemic in high-burden countries. Stressing the need for innovative diagnostic methods to accelerate tuberculosis detection and improve public health in Pakistan, Dr Ahmed also said that there is a dire need in the country for a more accurate and inexpensive diagnostic test in primary healthcare settings to increase the patients access to effective diagnosis.

Dr Zaidi acknowledged the support of the government’s National Tuberculosis Programme and Provincial Tuberculosis Programme towards expanding Indus Hospital’s Tuberculosis Reach Programme.

He thanked Dr Ejaz Qadeer and Provincial Tuberculosis Manager Dr Ismat Ara for their cooperation.

with additional input from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.