Cambodia bans unreliable TB tests
Cambodia has banned unreliable serological tuberculosis blood test kits due to their rampant and unethical use by private medical practices, government officials and the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
“The negative outcomes from the use of these tests include
developing drug resistance in patients and keeping a patient
alive, but not curing them of TB, which causes ongoing
transmission to the community and of course, their death,”
said the WHO’s Dr Rajendra Yadav.
Cambodia has
had a free-of-charge national TB program since 2001, said Dr Mao
Tan Eang of the government’s National Centre for
Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (CNET), but some people
“prefer to use private sector health centres, and this is
where the serological test kits are used”.
A
shift toward the free program, he said, would improve care.
“Unfortunately,
unethical medical practice in the private sector provided [a
significant boost] to these kits in recent years, without
bothering much on ... implications of false-positive and
false-negative results,” said WHO country director Dr
Pieter Van Maaren in a press release.
The Phnom Penh Post
