Date:01/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070152060700.htm

National

TB testing centre to come up in Kolkata

Raktima Bose

Kolkata: The first multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) testing laboratory in the eastern part of the country is all set to come up in Kolkata by October.

Built at a budget of Rs. 12 lakh under the DOTS (directly observed treatment, short-course) Plus programme of the Union Ministry’s Health and Family Welfare, central TB division, the laboratory will conduct sputum test of those patients who fail to respond within five months to the three to five drug regime of the DOTS programme.

The laboratory is coming up at the city’s B.C. Roy Hospital for Polio and Crippled Children while a treatment centre for MDR TB patients is being set up at the city’s K.S.Ray TB Hospital. “We plan to treat 50 MDR TB patients in the first year, according to the Government of India guideline, but the number will increase to 100 by the next year,” said Dr. Sanchita Bakshi, state director of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).