New child TB detection centre opens at DMCH

A specialised child tuberculosis (TB) detection centre has opened at Dhaka Medical College Hospital to detect missing cases.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the centre on Wednesday amid the ongoing health services week.

This is the third such centre built in three different parts of Dhaka by the USAID through the Challenge TB Bangladesh Project.

Earlier this month, the Specialised Child TB Centre was opened at Mugda Medical College Hospital while the other is at the Dhaka Shishu Hospital.

The fourth and the last one at the Institute of Child and Mother Health will be opened in May.

Childhood TB still remains a major challenge for Bangladesh. The diagnosis is difficult largely due to the fact that the disease in children produces non-specific clinical manifestations.

Sputum examination is the only and widely used test for the diagnosis of lung TB. But young children cannot produce sputum and this makes the diagnosis difficult among them.

According to government statistics, 68 percent of the estimated child TB remained missing in 2018, prompting the government to take donors support to set up specialised centre.

Those centres are equipped with efficient specimen collection procedures and trained staff for collection of samples. Those are also linked with an in-house GeneXpert testing facility to make diagnosis of child TB easy.

Also, those facilities serve as a referral linkage for other public and private facilities to help in bringing more patients to this facility for better management, according to the Challenge TB Project.

Director General for Health Services Abul Kalam Azad, Line Director of the government’s TB programme Samiul Islam, and Country Project Director of Challenge TB Bangladesh Oscar Cordon were also present, among others, at the launch.