A few years back, the World Health Organization has introduced a cartridge-based automatic tuberculosis diagnostic test that is able to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) DNA and resistance to rifampicin (RIF) from sputum samples.
Today, however, the occurrence of tuberculosis cases all over the world is still on the rise. 2014 statistics suggest that 8.6 million people are diagnosed with the disease each year and 1.3 million people die every year from the disease.
Due to these alarming figures the World Health Organization is continually finding and developing means to track the disease down for early treatment. Recently, a new research has found a new means of early tuberculosis detection via breath test.
Dr. Graham Timmins, an associate professor at the University of Mexico led a team of researchers in order to develop the said new TB testing technique.
According to Dr. Timmins and his team, an enzyme that is unique to the TB bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis is where the research revolves around. This is as the said enzyme can be detected from the breath of an infected individual.
The methodology of the research by Dr. Timmins team involved introducing a special molecular-labelled isoniazid to laboratory rabbits. Whenever the TB-causing bacterium is present, the infected rabbit's lung releases a labelled nitrogen gas which will then be detected by a spectrometer.
The positive reading (presence of labeled nitrogen in the exhaled air) will suggest the presence of TB bacterium.
As of the moment, the test only combines TB bacterium detection and isoniazid sensitivity. However, Dr. Timmins and his team are currently developing ways to make use of other TB combatting drugs in various settings in order to come up with more solid results.
What the world, the TB-stricken individuals and the World Health Organization along with Dr. Timmins' team is yet to be on the look out next is for the results of the research once the breath test technique is applied to humans in clinical setting.