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 The Challenges - Early Detection for Disease Management Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that spreads through contact with an infected person. The mycobaterium tuberculosis germs are transmitted through air droplets during coughing and sneezing. Appropriate antibiotic therapy for a TB patient can quickly reduce the risk of them infecting others. So, early diagnosis of infected patients can ultimately stop the spread of the disease. While the diagnosis of TB is well studied and many methods are available (skin test, sputum culture, chest X-ray, blood tests) these tests are time consuming and not always conclusive. Currently there are 5 ways to detect TB: · Manteux Test (requires at least 2-10 weeks of response time) · Sputum Test (requires 6 weeks of culture) · X-ray test (specific for lung TB, and not a confirmatory test) · PCR based Blood test (Very sensitive but can keep be positive in latent infections) · Protein based Blood test (sensitive but can keep be positive in latent infections) The challenge is can you propose a method that is rapid (less than 20minutes), accurate (accuracy > 90%), can diagnose TB early within 10-15 days of first reported symptoms (fever and persistent cough for 2-3 weeks)? Remember that 2 out of 5 people in India carry the tuberculosis germ, but do not have active disease and will not infect others (so beware of false positives). Reference material http://www.medicinenet.com/tuberculosis/page4.htm#tocf http://www.tbalert.org/resources/paper_pub/back_to_basics/watson.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/Features/TBsymptoms/ http://www.tulipgroup.com/Zephyr_New/product_range.htm# http://www.standardia.com/ http://www.professionalbiotech.net/pdf/MTB%20COMPLEX%20.pdf http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/afb_culture/glance.html |