Facilities at the Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing Laboratory at the Government Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases will be improved further, said its Superintendent P. Subba Rao while participating in the inaugural session of a pre-continuing medical education (CME) programme of the 16 annual conference of State chapter of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists here on Friday.
The laboratory, which is more than a year old, is conducting line probe assay (LPA) and providing results of the test done on sputum sample within 72 hours. At present it is conducting tests on solid culture and would soon have facility to do tests on liquid culture.
Principal of Andhra Medical College N. Kalpana Subrahmanyam inaugurated the CME and appreciated the Department of Microbiology for organising the CME and the two-day State conference from Saturday.
District TB Control Officer B. Sashidhar Kumar informed that 252 cases were diagnosed as multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB in the district. HoD of Microbiology and organising secretary I. Jyothi Padmaja presided.
The CME was jointly conducted by Department of Pulmonology of GHCCD and State chapter of IAMM, on the theme, LPA for MDR TB. Delegates from several medical colleges across the State attended.
Dr. Rahul Narang of Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) explained about LPA and conducted a demonstration which was relayed live on CCTV from the CDST Lab.
