IRL for Culture Sensitivity Test to be set up in Patiala

Chandigarh, Jun 28 (UNI) An Intermediate Reference Laboratory for Culture Sensitivity Test will be established at TB Hospital, Patiala. Supervision and monitoring of all the laboratories of the state will also be done with the help of IRL.

This was stated by Secretary Health cum Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) Satish Chandra in the review meeting of state level Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) on Friday.

Mr Chandra said that Culture Sensitivity Test would further help in curing Multi Drug Resistant (MDR-TB) TB patients. Earlier, this facility was available only at Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore.

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Director Dr SPS Sohal, who presided over the meeting, stated that Punjab has achieved the goals of TB Control Programme almost at par with the national level and hope to achieve the targets allocated to it in the year 2008-09.

The state has been consistently maintaining 85 per cent success rate of NSP patients as per national level. Punjab's New Sputum Positive Case detection Rate is on the increasing trend every year as it was 48 per cent in the year 2005, 55 per cent in the year 2006 and it has reached to 56 per cent in the year 2007.

Dr Pawan Kumar Bansal, State Programme Officer-RNTCP (Revised National TB Control Programme) briefed the various components of DOTS strategy under RNTCP.

Dr Bansal said that for effectively implementing the programme in the state, the address verification needs to be done urgently whenever the patient comes at the Government Dispensary or Hospital as a sputum positive case i.e. even after the very first spot sputum examination if it is positive.

The transferred out and transferred-in, referred-out and referred-in patients' record in the district and out of the district should be maintained properly, he said.

UNI PS BP1606