The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing...
According to a new study, a new test for more rapidly diagnosing drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) will help doctors make treatments more effective and reduce mortality from the disease.
The new study conducted in India showed that the new test might allow doctors to improvement treatment. Experts said that the drug-resistant forms of TB are much harder and more expensive to treat. They said that it is a major threat to global public health. TB is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases and accounted for 1.5 million deaths in 2013, according to the World Health Organisation.
Co-author Richard Garfein, professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, said, "Our study shows that TB testing that once took two to three months can now be done in as little as a day. This means we can put people on the right medications sooner, spare them the toxic effects of drugs that are ineffective and prevent the development of drug resistant forms of TB that can occur when the wrong medications are given."
The researchers analysed sputumfrom 1,128 study participants at TB clinics in India, Moldova and South Africa for detecting drug-resistant forms of TB for the study.
