UAE | Health
New machine to detect TB quickly in UAE, says official
WHO approval of PCR expected by end of this year, after which test results available in a day.
- By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporter
- Published: 10:44 March 24, 2009
Sharjah: No need to wait for four days to get your tuberculosis test results, a new machine will soon hand them over in just one day.
"Once the World Health Organisation [WHO] approves the machine in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which will most likely take place by the end of 2009, we will implement it immediately," said Dr Kalthoom Mohammad, tuberculosis programme manager at the Ministry of Health.
The PCR Machine is a piece of laboratory equipment used to amplify segments of DNA and is able to detect TB in a day, which will be more efficient than the procedures currently used that takes up to four days to receive the results.
The announcement was made on Tuesday as the country marked World TB Day under the slogan, "I am stopping TB".
World TB Day is held annually on March 24 and commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch presented his discovery of the TB bacillus to a group of doctors in Berlin, according to the WHO.
Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Chief Executive for Health Policies, Ministry of Health, said that 16 cases of TB of various types were reported per 100,000 citizens in 2008.
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