National Reference Center for tuberculosis and mycobacteria [1]
January 1, 1990
Project with no end date
Financial Source
Service(s) working on this project
Sciensano's project investigator(s):
Vanessa Mathys [5]
Partners
In short
The National Reference Center (NRC) for tuberculosis and mycobacteria [6] is a laboratory specialized in the microbiological diagnosis of tuberculosis and mycobacterioses, and in the molecular monitoring of tuberculosis.
Project summary
Our objectives are :
- to diagnose mycobacterial infections and identify clinical strains (up to species level) using molecular techniques;
- to confirm, upon request, the diagnosis made by peripheral clinical laboratories;
- to conduct drug-sensitivity tests (molecular and bacteriological methods) for M. tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria;
- to determine susceptibility to second-line antibiotics of multi-drug resistant M. tuberculosis strains;
- to detect thepresence of latent tuberculosis in patients ;
- to determine genetic fingerprintings to identify epidemics and transmission pathways of tuberculosis;
- to organize annual quality control for the network of Belgian laboratories that perform mycobacterial diagnoses.