On the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day on Friday, 40 tuberculosis patients samples were collected for an ambitious whole genome sequencing (WGS) study launched at KEM Hospital, Parel.

According to municipal officials, the project seeks to perform WGS on 2,500 patients suffering from multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB and provide fast and accurate analysis, allowing clinicians to prescribe patients appropriate medicine instantly. Currently, such thorough reports of resistance patterns take weeks or more.

The WGS project, collaboration between the BMCs public health department and the Society for Mumbai Incubation Lab to Entrepreneurship (SMILE) Council, will use the technology offered by Haystack Analytics Private Limited, a biotech business based at IIT Bombay.

Anirvan Chatterjee of Haystack Analytics Pvt Ltd said that WGS might be performed in a few hours instead of the weeks required for diagnostic analysis of the kind and therapies. The KEM Hospital genome sequencing research will make it easier for doctors to determine which treatments will be more beneficial for a patient. The doctor will get access to the report within a few hours.

Only three of the 17 to 18 medications available to treat patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis are given to patients based on their individual needs.

WGS, which was first used to study tuberculosis over a decade ago in the UK, is developing as a foolproof and quick approach to detect the TB variation at work and drugs that might help battle it.

Dr. Mangala Gomare, executive health officer at BMC, said that the research would help us identify which strain is the most common in the city and make it easier for clinicians to choose appropriate treatments to be provided to patients suffering from drug-resistant tuberculosis.

(Source:  https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/bmcs-tuberculosis-genome-project-to-give-test-results-in-hours/98990002)