Updated on 20 February 2013
Serological tests for TB are unreliable
An estimated 1.5 million patients undergo diagnostic tests for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in India every year and this number has been steadily increasing along with the number of confirmed cases. The adverse scenario is further compounded by the lack of reliable serological diagnostic tests.
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The lack of a dependable serological test is so acute that even the World Health Organization (WHO) in its policy recommendation suggested that a ban be implemented on such tests as unreliable serological tests give imprecise results and cause inconsistent diagnosis of TB, thus leading to risk to human lives. This recommendation was taken very seriously and the Indian government recently banned the use of serological tests for TB. Trends in the TB diagnostic markets in India have been rapidly changing and serological tests have recently drawn a lot of criticism from experts.
Dr Madhukar Pai, associate professor, McGill University, Canada, said that, "Repeated results have shown that these tests are inaccurate and misleading and are costly. So, just because doctors are widely using them does not make it right. Popularity of a test or product does not make it valid. You need hard scientific data to show that the tests are valid and accurate."
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Roland Maes 21 February 2013 at 02:16 PM
Dr. M.Pai is biased in his assesment of the accvuracy of the Anda serological test for TB. I give you here his publication: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-qJMwWQuaNkt_UurjVLFdNBuD4B-jZXHvMuASTEPHwQ/edit?usp=sharing my response to it is here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzOCEfOSmeiUZDZOWktTZ1VEWm8/edit?usp=sharing Pai promptly removed it from the journal where he published(PloS medicine).I submitted a corrective answer to the Indian Journal of Laboratory Physicians, exposing the benefits of TB-serology but this paper is on hold : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J9IBt8YMule7565tztLKa_9lEoFI4cX7A8fmMKv1rDo/edit?usp=sharing, while still hoping for a publication, I can send it to you on a confidential basis. The experts who decry the szerolgy deny the expertise of those Indian investigators (over ninety publications) who found it beneficial. With the recent evidence that the new Indian strategy designed to stamp out TB resulted in its increase, it seems to me normal that the tenants of this strategy attempt to justify it: the ban on serology is within this strategy , as stated by The Hindu: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzOCEfOSmeiUcUVEb3VfYW15Tzg/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzOCEfOSmeiUM2EtX0p1RFBZLXc/edit?usp=sharing
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