National Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases

(Erstwhile LRS Institute Of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases)

V O L . X / N O . I I N E W S L E T T E R A P R I L — J U N E 2 0 1 7

WHO Fellowship Training

INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:

TB Quiz 2
The Institute is a WHO collabo-

International Nurses 3
rating centre for training in the field
Days of tuberculosis. Four WHO fellows
Presentation & 4 ,-5 from DPR Korea underwent training
Activities
in clinical management of tuberculo-
Statistical Data 5 sis from 27 March to 15 April 2017.
The course was coordinated by Dr.
Department In Focus 6,7
Sushil Munjal and Dr. Vikram Vohra.
Several faculty members ofCaption
the Insti-
describing picture or graphic.
tute interacted with the visitors and
shared ideas and thoughts.
V O L.X / NO . II P AG E 2

TB Quiz
A Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) cell
under the chair ship of Dr Anita Rani, Nurs-
ing Superintendant was constituted by the
Nursing Department to update knowledge
and skills of nurses for improving patient
care. The CNE cell organized a TB Quiz on
25 April 2017. The event was inaugurated
by the Chief Guest, Dr Rathi Balachandran,
Additional Director General, Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare in the presence
of the Director and other dignitaries. 26 par-
ticipants took part in the quiz, who were
given prizes and certificates of participation.

The quiz was anchored by Ms Ashima and

Ms Manju. The team from ICU consisting of
Ms. Jeenamol Roy and Ms. Priyanka Singh
was the winner of the contest. It is pro-
posed to continue this activity regularly and
also to award a trophy to the winners.
V OL.X / NO . II P AG E 3

International Nurses Day

Nurses
“A Voice to Lead, Achieving The sustained development
goals
Birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale is commemo-
rated on 12 May every year as the International Nurses Day.
This day is celebrated to honor and acknowledge the contribu-
tion of nurses towards the society.
The chosen theme for this year is NURSE: A Voice To Lead -
Achieving The Sustainable Development Goals.
The ceremony was inaugurated by the Director Dr Sarin.
In addition, Dr Myneedu, Dr. Pravesh, Dr. Anita Rani and sev-
eral senior faculty members graced the occasion. A number of
Staff Nurses in large number were also present in the gather-
ing.

The program commenced with lamp lighting followed by

cultural program in which nurses of different wards performed
entertaining dances and skits.
Winner of CME TB Quiz were awarded with trophy and certifi-
cates. The Director, Dr Sarin, Dr. Anita Rani Kansal and Dr.
Pravesh Yadav addressed the audience and congratulated
nurses for their valuable contributions.

NA TIO NA L IN ST IT UTE OF T UBERCULO SIS & RESP IRA T O RY DISEA SES

V OL.X / NO . II
Faculty in action P AG E 4

APRIL

1. Dr Rohit Sarin, Director, NITRD, participated in TB-Free India Summit organized by The UNION, at Dharamshala
from 7th to 8th April 2017. He also participated in National Task Force Meeting Organized by Central TB Division,
GGHS, Government of India at Guwahati from 11th to 12th April 2017 and delivered a talk on “ Current Mnage-
ment of MDR/XDR Tuberculosis” in AIIMS Pulmocrit 2017 at AIIMS, New Delhi on 16th April 2017.
2. Dr Rupak Singla, HOD TB and Respiratory Diseases, participated in “National trainings of trainers for expansion of
Bedaquiline & Shorter MDR-TB regimen with updated Guidelines for PMDT in India“ as a facilitator and also de-
livered a lecture on “Treatment services including shorter regimen, Bedaquiline, treatment modification and DST
guided treatment of TB” held at New Delhi from 18th to 20th April 2017.

3. Dr. R.K. Dewan, HOD, Thoracic Surgery, chaired a session on “EBUS in the Innovations in Oncology Program –
Lung Cancer Edition” from 22nd to 23rd April at New Delhi.The Department also conducted a work based Form-
ative assessment test of DNB Thoracic Surgery students from all over Delhi on 20th April 2017 and conducted
the Final Practical Examination of DNB Thoracic Surgery students from all over the country on 29th April 2017 in
the Institute.
4. Dr. Manpreet Bhalla, Microbiologist, attended the Expert Committee Meeting on TB Diagnosis at ICMR Head-
quarter, New Delhi on 18th April 2017.

MAY
1. Dr Rohit Sarin, Director, NITRD, attended a meeting organized by Central TB Division, DGHS, Government of India
to decide on the treatment regimen for Drug Resistant TB under RNTCP in accordance with the findings of Na-
tional Drug Resistance Survey at NTI Bangalore on 12th May 2017. He also attended consultative meeting of ex-
perts for finalizing the strategies and activities to achieving State’s End TB Mission at Shimla on 29th May 2017.
2. Manpreet Bhalla & team attended NABL ISO15189, QMS training from 24th to 27th May 2017 conducted by
FIND, CTD, MOHFW at the Institute.
3. Dr Ritu Singhal was the National level facilitator for second line LPA training course at ICELT, National TB Institute,
Bangalore from 8th to 9th May 2017.

4. Dr Pravesh Yadav, AMS, attended Workshop on E-Waste Management, organised by DPCC, Delhi Secretariat at
New Delhi on 17th May 2017.

5. The Institute conducted a Working Group Meeting for development of tools for PMDT evaluation from 5th to 6th
May 2017. It was attended by 24 DTOs/MOs. The Institute also conducted a training on “Preparatory activities for
NABL Accreditation of selected Culture and DST Labs under RNTCP” organized by FIND, CTD, MOHFW from 24th
to 27th May 2017 for 32 doctors

NA TIO NA L IN ST IT UTE OF T UBERCULO SIS & RESP IRA T O RY DISEA SES

V OL.X / NO . II
Faculty in action P AG E 5

JUNE

1. Dr Rohit Sarin, Director, attended Meeting organized by Central TB Division, DGHS, Govt of India at
NTI, Bangalore on 21st June 2017 to discuss the treatment outcome of patient enrolled under NDR Sur-
vey found drug resistant to first line drugs excluding any RR-TB. He also attended Technical Consulta-
tion on latent TB Infection (LTBI) as an expert at NIRT, Chennai from 29th to 30th June 2017.

2. Dr. Manpreet Bhalla, Microbiologist, attended the Technical Specification Committee Meeting for the
procurement of items for ICTC as a Microbiology Subject Expert of Technical Specification Committee
at Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi on 2nd June 2017. She conducted the Training of MD, PSM students from
AIIMS and took a lecture on “Diagnostic Modalities under RNTCP and modified PMDT algorithm” fol-
lowed by Lab Visit on 13th June 2017. She organized the Sensitization cum Training Workshop for ICMR
-RNTCP TrueNAT Demonstration Study conducted by NIRT Chennai and Molecular Biology Team on
27th June at NITRD. She also attended the 1st Mentoring Workshop for preparatory Activities towards
NABL accreditation at RMRC, Bhubaneswar from 28th June to 1st July 2017.

3. Dr. Ritu Singhal, Microbiologist, conducted IInd Line LPA Training of Microbiology and Lab staff held on
13th and 14th June 2017 at AIIMS, New Delhi as master trainer.

Statistical Data
Data from April - June 2017
OPD New Registration : 14986
Subsequent visits of in OPD: 31686
New Patients per Day: 164
Patient Attendance per day: 653
Emergency Patients: 3626
Thoracic Surgical Procedures: 175

NA TIO NA L IN ST IT UTE OF T UBERCULO SIS & RESP IRA T O RY DISEA SES

V OL.X / NO . II P AG E 6

Department In Focus :: MICROBIOLOGY

DR VP MYNEEDU
HOD MICROBIOLOGY

The Department of Microbiology is headed by an eminent Microbiologist Dr. V.P. Myneedu. He is ably sup-
ported by Senior Research Officer Dr. Manpreet Bhalla, Senior Microbiologists Dr. Ajoy Kumar Varma and Dr.
Ritu Singhal. Consultant Microbiologists from NRL Dr. Niti Singh and Dr. Jyoti Arora and Dr. Gavish Kumar
from FIND further add to the stellar faculty in the Department. It is equipped to provide diagnostic support in
the areas of Mycobacteriology, Bacteriology, Mycology, Serology, Parasitology, Virology and Molecular Biolo-
gy. World Health Organization and Global Laboratory Initiative have recognized the Mycobacteriology at NI-
TRD as Center of Excellence & National reference Laboratory under RNTCP in Supranational reference labora-
tory network. NRL regularly participates in the external quality assessment programme of WHO-GLI by Ant-
werp, Belgium for I line and IInd line TB drug susceptibility & NTM by both phenotypic and genotypic meth-
ods. Department has expertise & diagnostic capacity for smear microscopy, gene expert, 1st & 2nd line LPA,
MGIT culture & DST, solid culture & DST, conventional and molecular identification methods for Non-
tubercular Mycobacteria.

A postgraduate DNB course in Microbiology has also been started in the Department recently and two stu-
dents have been enrolled for the same this year.

NRL works closely with IRL, monitoring their activities, training of the staff and supporting the states under
them for diagnostic services till they are certified. Presently seven states of North India (Delhi, Punjab, Chan-
digarh, Himachal, Bihar, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir) are allotted to the NRL.
V OL.X / NO . II P AG E 7

Department In Focus :: Microbiology

Key activities of Department during year 2016-17

4855 MDR TB suspects were tested by rapid TB diagnostics and 1185 MDR TB/ RIF-TB cases were diagnosed as part of
PMDT services to four districts of Delhi.

Baseline second line DST was started among all MDR patients diagnosed for early detection of pre XDR s and XDR
cases. Cultures of around 2904 MDR patients (FU+ Baseline) under the program were subjected to second line DST

On sight evaluations (OSEs) was carried out for all seven states which included 6 IRL’s, 3 Culture & DST laboratory, 35
CBNAAT site and 38 DTC/DMC of various districts. On site panel testing of 148 STLS/LT was conducted during the vis-
its.

Proficiency testing of all laboratories conducted for solid culture and DST, LPA and liquid culture wherever applicable.
Two labs, IRL NDTB and PGI Chandigarh have been certified for extended second line DST.

Trainings

International trainings are being regularly conducted by the Department in collaboration with International Union &
SAARC nations for various diagnostic modalities of tuberculosis under RNTCP. Various faculty of Department are na-
tional trainers in field of TB.

Onsite trainings are also conducted for trainees from states supported by NRL. Recently, with the start of II line LPA,
online trainings were conducted for all states within a month.

Projects

Department is currently involved in several mycobacteriology research projects to strengthen the services in the field
of molecular microbiology and drug resistance studies with various articles published in reputed journals.

Validation of indigenously developed technologies for diagnosis of pulmonary & drug resistant TB

Novel sample processing for simple & rapid diagnosis of TB, MDR-TB & XDR-TB

Genotypic characterization and phenotypic correlation of the rifampicin resistant isolates with unknown mutations
obtained in Genotype MTBDRplus assay

Diagnostic Performance of Gene Xpert and Line Probe Assay for diagnosis of Osteo-articular Tuberculosis

Pyrazinamide resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from MDR suspects and identification of mutations
by sequencing
 Department In Focus :: Microbiology
The Microbiology Department is keeping pace with all the International developments and advancements in the
field and it is proposed to maintain and upgrade the leadership position that it enjoys in the field.

The Motto
The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys
that will unlock the door to personal excellence

Back Page Story Headline

Editor-in Chief: Editor:

Dr. Rohit Sarin Dr. R. K Dewan

Members:
Dr. Sushil Munjal
Dr. Ritu Singhal
Dr. Amit Sharma
Ms Gayatri Anupam
Ms. Aarti