TB Diagnotics

While the required drugs would be available, the treatment strategies in the fight against TB are suffering from the bottleneck of dedicated and suitable diagnostic tools. Among the three „global killer diseases", TB is the most difficult for making a laboratory diagnosis.

In resource-limited settings, TB is diagnosed by using sputum smears with microscopy. Fluorescence based microscopic techniques have shown to be much more sensitive than transmitted light microscopy, where M.tuberculosis bacilli in a significant number of cases are not seen, but neither conventional fluorescence nor usual light microscopes (prohibitive prices of USD 15,000-25,000) for high sensitivity TB testing are available in most labs of resource-poor countries. Partec Essential Healthcare is now offering the uniquely portable and battery-operated CyScope® TB for transmitted light and fluorescence microscopy featuring traditionally superior engineering quality of German manufacturing in highest sensitivity optical systems and a most modern high power LED technology. 

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TB and HIV

TB is the most common opportunistic infection in persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

Many AIDS patients show previously undiagnosed, untreated, and potentially contagious TB. In total, approximately 13-14 million - or 1/3 - of all HIV-infected individuals are coinfected with TB. The risk of developing TB disease doubles in the first year after becoming HIV-infected and gets progressively higher over time. TB is a leading cause of death among PLWHA.