The World Bank has welcomed the outcome of a US$178m project funded in India to boost its fight against tuberculosis, notably through increasing laboratory capacity.
In an assessment report, the bank said funded changes made under India’s Second National Tuberculosis Control Programme were 'overall…satisfactory'. It said there had been an 'improvement in the quality of laboratory services, including establishment of intermediate reference laboratories, introducing a laboratory quality assurance (QA) system, and ensuring routine reporting of QA results…to inform measures for improvement'.
It said the project had highlighted some key lessons, which included the need to improve 'the quality of physical infrastructure of the laboratories, improving biosafety measures and medical waste management practices', as well as training and staff’s clinical care abilities, supervision and reporting. It welcomed how funding sparked a 'substantial physical expansion of laboratories at the [Indian] state level that provide quality diagnostic services, with 42 reference laboratories being created by 2012'.
