On World TB Day (March 24th),  the central government has begun a door-to-door TB screening campaign across India. This campaign will run for two to three weeks covering vulnerable populations across states. The government will be deploying the indigenously developed Truenat platform to scale up testing in the country. The Truenat technology was endorsed by WHO in 2020 as the world’s first point-of-care rapid molecular diagnostic platform for diagnosis of TB and multidrug resistance.

Truenat, designed and manufactured by Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics, is a point-of-care portable, battery-operated, IoT-enabled, Real-Time PCR platform with a sample to result in less than 1 hour.  

According to Sriram Natarajan, Director and CEO, Molbio Diagnostics, “Over 3,500 CHCs and PHCs have been equipped with Truenat devices under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) for first-line testing of TB in suspected patients”

On the training imparted to front-line volunteers he added, “Yes, all lab technicians and associated government healthcare workers at Truenat TB testing centres in CHCs and PHCs have been trained to efficiently conduct the tests. Regular reviews and refresher training are also conducted to maintain high standards of quality”

TB is highly contagious but a 100% curable disease, provided an accurate diagnosis is made early in the infectious cycle. To enable this, the WHO has recommended the replacement of the traditional smear microscopy technique with more sensitive and specific rapid molecular diagnostic tools such as Truenat as the first-line test for the diagnosis of TB. This will help detect millions of patients that go undiagnosed every year and curb the further spread of the disease.

On the involvement of the private sector in this TB drive, Natarajan said, “Over 50% of TB care in India is provided through the private sector. Private laboratories and hospitals conduct a large number of TB tests and are expected to play a vital role in India’s TB elimination campaign. The government of India is declared TB as a notifiable disease, making it mandatory for the private sector to report each TB case to the NTEP. Truenat has been deployed across over 1500 private users for diagnosis of TB and wide range of other infectious diseases. “