New infectious diseases hospital to open in Doha by 2014

A new infectious diseases hospital will open in Doha within two years to treat people infected by Tuberculosis (TB) successfully, an official has revealed. Construction work on an integrated hospital for infectious diseases is underway at the Hamad Medical City and it is expected to be ready by 2014, National Tuberculosis Program manager Dr. Abdul Latif al-Khal told the Qatari daily (Gulf Times). "The new infectious diseases hospital will house the National Tuberculosis program as well as clinics that look after those infected by TB," he said. The new 65-bedded hospital will replace the existing facility at the Rumailah Complex. "The new hospital will have an in-patient unit as well as other facilities needed to treat TB successfully," he stated. Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB (short for tubercle bacillus) is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is contagious and spreads through the air. If not treated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year. More than two billion people are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB and one in every 10 of those people will become sick with active TB in his or her lifetime while people living with the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) are at a much greater risk. Meanwhile, work is about to finish on the construction of a new TB laboratory next to the Communicable Diseases section at the Hamad General Hospital. The lab is expected to open by end of the year. "We are establishing this new lab, which will include a pharmacy and X-ray section, in order to support clinical management of TB as it will have the latest technology in TB diagnosis using the molecular techniques for a highly accurate result," Dr. al-Khal said. According to the official, new technologies could diagnose TB in a matter of days compared to the old system that takes weeks. The laboratory’s X-ray unit will enable it to conduct chest X-rays and other micro-biological examinations. The official said that the lab might also have the capacity to do a tuberculin skin test, scans and X-rays as well as surgical biopsy. Over the past decade, TB has become a major public health problem globally, particularly in Africa and Asia. TB has been the leading infectious diseases found among newcomers coming to visit or reside in Qatar and in 2009 and 2010, with the Medical Commission, which carries out compulsory tests for infectious diseases in the country, recording a total of 5,430 and 7,459 TB cases in the two years respectively. In 2011, the National Program detected a total of 553 new cases of active TB while some 3,175 cases were referred by the Medical Commission for further investigation, out of which some 52 were found with active TB.