India develops indigenous hand-held X-ray for TB screening

By Shalini Bhardwaj

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Rajiv Bahl spoke about new projects and achievements in public health and highlighted a significant advancement in tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis: a new handheld X-ray device developed for screening TB, enhancing early detection and treatment efforts, ultimately improving public health outcomes.

Speaking at the 19th International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities (ICDRA) INDIA-2024 on Wednesday, ICMR DG Dr Bahl said, “The handheld X-rays are available at a very high cost and now the IIT Kanpur in partnership with ICMR has developed a handheld X-ray indigenously which will be less than half the cost of what the cost of imported handheld X-rays are. This will make sure we can have screening for TB near the homes of patients and even the vulnerable population.”

Bahl further said that India has developed three testing kits for Mpox as well. “We have developed three testing kits for Mpox and there are three companies who are manufacturing such kits,” he said.

Over a million people are affected in India with sickle cell disease, which is the second largest in the World, last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission to eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem by 2047.

ICMR is constantly working on this and recently they have conducted a brainstorming session with doctors and scientists all over the country at the New Delhi Head office.

According to Dr Rajiv Bahl, India has developed 18 tests with low cost to detect Sickle Cell Anaemia which is a major breakthrough, “Now we have approved 18 tests for Sickle cell Anemia and each test costs rupees 30 which was earlier 400 per test.”

India lost several lives due to Dengue but now vaccine for dengue is also expected to be launched soon if data shows efficacy and safety, Dr Bahl said, “We are doing phase three clinical trial of dengue vaccine and we expect the results to come within one year or so and found safety as well as efficacy then India will develop dengue vaccine also.”