WHO endorses indigenous molecular diagnostic tool for tuberculosis diagnosis

News:The World Health Organisation(WHO) has endorsed TrueNat which is an indigenous molecular diagnostic tool for tuberculosis(TB) diagnosis.

Facts:

About TrueNat:

• The TrueNat is a new molecular test that can diagnose TB in one hour as well as testing for resistance to the drug rifampicin.
• The test has been developed by the Indian firm MolBio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd Goa.
• The test works by rapid detection of TB bacteria using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.

Additional information:

About Tuberculosis (TB)

• Tuberculosis(TB) is an infectious airborne bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
• When TB infection becomes resistant to the first line of treatment — isoniazid and rifampicin it is called Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). 
• However,when the infection becomes resistant even to the second-line treatment it is called Extensively-drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).
• According to the Global Tuberculosis Report 2019,India had 26.9 lakh TB patients in 2018.
• TB kills an estimated 4.8 lakh Indians every year and more than 1,400 every day.India has the highest TB burden in the world and also has more than a million ‘missing’ cases every year that are not notified.

About Polymerase chain reaction(PCR):

• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a common laboratory technique used to make many copies (millions or billions) of a particular region of DNA.
• The goal of PCR is to make enough of the target DNA region that it can be analyzed or used in some other way.
• PCR is used in many areas of biology and medicine, including molecular biology research, medical diagnostics, and even some branches of ecology.