World Tuberculosis Day 2023: This AI tool can detect active TB cases in seconds

Representative image Ctsy: Reuters

Swaasa, an AI platform developed by Telangana-based Salcit Technologies, which claims to detect tuberculosis within a few minutes, was launched on World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

Swaasa was looking to be a rapid-response, affordable and sensitive screening tool for undiagnosed cases of TB in India, the company said in a release.

India, which has one of the highest loads of TB in the world, is stepping up efforts to detect and cure the contagious disease that mainly effects the lungs, as worries mount over drug-resistant tuberculosis.

“Swaasa holds the promise not only to screen TB non-invasively and instantaneously but also to enhance the capacity of healthcare workers and strengthen the health system, including the public and private networks," Salcit Technologies CEO Venkat Yechuri said.

About 64 percent of symptomatic TB patients are unable to seek appropriate care at the right time, the release said.

India Health Fund, a Tata Trusts initiative, partnered with ACT For Health (ACF) to support the AI platform.

Active case finding (ACF) is an established method for screening high-risk populations for infectious diseases like TB. ACF identified 73,772 of the 2.23 crore patients screened for TB through government programmes in 2021, the release said.

India Health Fund and ACT For Health co-funded Swaasa. Salcit Technologies, a company focused on respiratory diseases, uses a phone's microphone to record the sound of coughs from suspected tuberculosis patients and analysed them to decode unique cough signatures to detect pulmonary tuberculosis by using an artificial intelligence algorithm, the company said.

India Health Fund CEO Madhav Joshi said, "We believe that actively finding undiagnosed TB cases quickly and connecting them to treatment will bring us closer to the elimination of the disease."