TB fight could soon get boost from simple swab diagnostic test
A SIMPLE mouth swab may one day help diagnose tuberculosis, if the results of a small trial conducted in Worcester and Seattle can be replicated.Quick and accurate diagnosis is essential for controlling TB, which affected 380,000 people in SA in 2013, according to the World Health Organisation. TB is currently diagnosed by getting patients to cough up sputum and then testing it for TB germs. But many patients struggle to cough up the thick mucous from the lungs, so scientists are hunting for alternative approaches.HIV/AIDS patients "don’t usually have good quality sputum, children have difficulties coughing it up, and so do patients who are very ill", the principal investigator of the South African arm of the study, Angelique Luabeya, said. "There is also a risk to healthcare workers (from coughing patients)."Sputum testing was also problematic because it often failed to identify TB and returned a false negative in up to 30% of cases, she said.Researchers at the South African Tuberc...
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