New DNA-Based Test To Detect Drug-Resistant TB In Two Days

Geneva, Switzerland (AHN) - Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in diagnosing multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) by using a DNA-based test that takes just two days to yield results.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday said the rapid molecular diagnostic tool will be available over the next four years in more than a dozen countries.

Currently, standard tests take up to three months, the main reason why only 2 percent of MDR-TB cases worldwide are diagnosed and treated appropriately. With the new test, diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB is expected to increase to 15 percent or more within four years.

The test costs $5 but an additional $15 has to be spent on lab equipment and staff salaries, bringing the total cost to $20 compared with up to $34 for older methods, a spokesman for WHO said. Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Congo are expected to begin using the test by the end of the year.

Currently, the tests are only used in research settings, but soon nearly 16 countries with a significant MDR-TB problem will become equipped for it. One country, Lesotho, is already equipped to start using these tests.

The UN estimates 400,000 new cases of MDR-TB out of nine million TB cases every year. The infection is usually diagnosed late or when they are no longer responding to standard TB treatment, thus delaying administration of second-line drugs. Late detection also makes MDR-TB harder to treat.

"This test is feasible, is affordable, and is effective in high endemic countries," Journalgazette.net quoted Giorgio Roscigno of the Geneva-based FIND as saying. FIND helped in developing the MDR-TB test.

More than 9 million people around the world fall sick with tuberculosis every year. Of those, about 500,000 get MDR-TB.

AHN Correspondent Windsor Genova contributed to this report.