Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis

The Role of Novel Molecular Techniques for Tuberculosis Diagnostics in the WHO European Region

Abstract

Soudeh Ehsani, Martin van den Boom, Christopher Gilpin and Masoud Dara

Tuberculosis and particularly multidrug resistant TB remains a major public health concern in the WHO European Region. In order to reduce the burden of the disease, early, accurate and rapid diagnoses play a crucial role. Sputum smear microscopy that has long been used as the main TB diagnostic method detects TB only with low sensitivity and phenotypic culture-based methods require several weeks and high biosafety laboratory infrastructures. The use of the WHO endorsed rapid molecular method for simultaneous detection of TB and rifampicin resistance detection has promising advantages to overcome these challenges and lead to major advances for early and accurate diagnosis of TB. With better understanding appearing discordances between phenotypic and genotypic methods, as well as the development and implementation of regionally adapted diagnostic algorithms, the precision of result acquisition and interpretation can advance even further.