In India, a person loses his life due to TB every one and a half minute. The State TB Training and Research Centre at the Civil Hospital have been recognized as India’s first Intermediate Reference Laboratory for testing multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. The centre started providing services on Thursday.

The advantage of the testing centre at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital is that the presence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis can be detected within 24 hours, and testing will be done free of cost. Earlier only partial multi-drug resistant test was done at the TB Research Centre, Chennai. Disadvantage of this test was that it took four and a half months for diagnosis and costs Rs 1.35 lakh.

The MDR TB specialty lab has bio-safety level III and negative pressure room facility, mandatory for the testing. Rs 50 lakh have been invested in the testing lab. This lab is the product of the partnership project between the Centre and Geneva-based Foundation ‘Innovative New Diagnostics’.  

Jay Narayan Vyas, state Health Minister said that the project fell into Gujarat’s kitty after having successfully implemented the pilot project at Chanasama in Patan taluka of Mehsana district under the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP) with Directly Observed Treatment strategy (DOTS). In 2004, the project was expanded to the entire state.