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Udupi : Rotary Club of Udupi-Manipal donates a Genexpert testing device to diagnose faster and more accurately Tuberculosis (TB) to District Government Hospital, udupi on 2^nd March, 2016 at 10 am, said Dr. Gauri International Service Director of Rotary International.

She was talking with media persons at Udupi on Friday, 26^th February said that according to World Health Organization, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) is considered to be vastly under diagnosed to day. It is learnt that most TB patients in India first seek care from a private doctors, where they do not get accurate diagnosis and or treatment. Approximately 24 lakhs new active TB   cases are reported in India every year. Nearly 1000 persons die every day due to improper decease management and delay in providing proper diagnosis and treatment. This is a direct result of current MBT testing method, requiring weeks to deliver a definitive result, which can lead to patients being left untreated or placed on an ineffective treatment. These patients may continue to spread MBT to others in the community, increasing the disease burden.

As per report published in New Indian Express dated 21^st April, 15, drug resistant TB cases are on the increase in Karnataka state. In order to reverse the trend an effective method to quickly diagnose the TB should be adopted. Revised National TB Control Programme was started in Udupi in 2004. Under this on an average 1500 to 2000 patients are diagnosed in a year. It is learnt that a lot of time is taken to decide effectively that the patient is declared TB afflicted and start treatment. The district TB Control Officer states that they are compelled to send samples to Bijapur which is located 500kms away from Udupi for testing and wait for 10 to 15 days for receiving test results. The normal method adopted by the hospital is sputum examination, X-ray and ither age old methods available at Designated Microscopy centers. According to district TB Control officwer, the situation in Udupi district is still worse as there are equal number of cases remain un reported. In other words, if full efforts are put in place there could be an enormous increase in number of TB Patients.

The Genexpert testing device developed by ‘Cephied” can diagnose even multi drug Resistant TB. The device has been approved by World Health Organization. It takes about two hours to diagnose. Thus it saves lot of time to start proper treatment and associated risk of spread of TB to others could be controlled. Karnataka state government is agreeable to meet cost of cartridge which costs around Rs. 1200 each and other running expenses. The patients get free of cost treatment including drugs and medicine.

She said Rotary Club of Udupi – Manipal is donating one Genexpert testing device with four testing sites along with an Air conditioner, an uninterrupted power supply and a fridge to government hospital at Udupi at a cost of Rs. 24.26 laks. Funding of the project is arranged under Global Grant of the Rotary Foundation. An International Rotary district 7450 and Rotary Club of Central Chester Coutu (USA) and our own Rotary dist. 3180 and our club are involved in this project, which is bringing latest technological testing device to our district to mitigate the hardship of the TB patients. Our club desires that the facility should be used for the betterment of public health.

The handing over function being held in Government District Hospital Udupi under chairman ship of Rotary District Governor Rtn MPHF. Dr. Bharathesh Adiraj, in the august presence of Dr. Vishal IAS . Dy Commissioner, Udupi as chief guest and other dignitaries on 2^nd March, 2016 at 10 am.

H.K. Rehman, Ariga Rajaverma, H. N. Rao, Aruna Shenoy were present during press meet.