India's TB elimination goal needs stronger diagnostic infrastructure at the point of care: peer-reviewed study
Aug 14, 2026
New Delhi [India], August 14: India's fight against tuberculosis needs to go beyond treatment and case notification and urgently focus on strengthening diagnostic infrastructure at the point of care, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The study, titled "Evaluating the nationwide availability of essential diagnostics for tuberculosis towards achieving a TB-free India," provides a multi-state assessment of essential tuberculosis diagnostic services across public-sector healthcare facilities and a nationwide analysis of TB Treatment Units and Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing (CDST) laboratories. The research team assessed 327 healthcare facilities across seven states and Delhi, while also analysing national-level data on TB Treatment Units and CDST laboratories.