‘TB Free India’ Mission has been gaining traction with the participation of the private sector in capacity building. Quality-certified diagnostic services by private sector labs are set to play the role of powerful catalyst in identifying ‘missing millions.’ The government has been taking several initiatives to expand its infrastructure to enhance capacity for the testing and quality-certified private sector labs are expected to provide further thrust to the Mission.
The India TB Report 2024 shows a slight increase in TB incidence in 2023 to 27.8 lakh cases, with 3.2 lakh deaths. Taking into account the huge burden of the disease in the country, the government, under its National Tuberculosis Examination Program (NTEP), started assessing and certifying the quality of tests being conducted at private organisations for capacity building for diagnosing and identifying TB cases.
NTEP has a vision of achieving a TB-free India with strategies consisting of preventing, detecting, treating, and building pillars for universal coverage and social protection. Diagnostic services under the NTEP are provided through a network of laboratories at three levels- National, State, and Facility. The various diagnostic tests provided include microscopy (ZN Smear), Rapid AFB, Culture and DST, cartridge-based Molecular Test and Line Probe Assays.
To align with the government’s efforts for ‘TB Free India’ in general and capacity building, the TB Lab at City X-Ray & Scan Clinic, underwent assessment and certification of quality reporting by NTEP and received NTEP certification for First Line, Line Probe Assay (FL LPA) testing.
City X-Ray and Scan Clinic’s achievement aims to support the Government of India’s TB Mukt Bharat Mission, aiming to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) from the country.