The National Tuberculosis Programme (NTBP) has made a major step in efficiently diagnosing Tuberculosis (TB) cases following the establishment of a laboratory in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) compound.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release, the laboratory, which is housed next to the Georgetown Chest Clinic, screens patients the same day they are seen by the clinician, as opposed to returning the next day. Previously, test samples were sent to the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPRHL) for processing and this often added to the workload of the facility which in turn caused delays in accessing the results.
The NTBP Secretariat explained that the lab services offered, specifically include the test that detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and resistance to rifampin (RIF) using the GeneXpert machine as well as sputum microscopy.
