National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP), Bangladesh is a priority public health programme of the Government of Bangladesh, operating under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to control and eliminate tuberculosis across the country.

The programme advocates early identification of presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients at the first point of care, and prompt diagnosis using high sensitivity diagnostic tests to provide universal access to quality TB diagnosis including drug resistant TB (DR-TB) in Bangladesh.

NTP Bangladesh has initiated transition to molecular testing using NAAT (Nucleic acid amplification test) including GeneXpert and Truenat platforms for TB diagnostics across the country.

Regular monitoring and review of the programme interventions are an essential component to control the disease. Supervision and monitoring activities are pivotal in ensuring quality services delivery for achieving the vision of a TB-free Bangladesh.

Quality Assurance of Laboratory Services - The programme has a very well-established quality assurance (QA) mechanism which is in line with the WHO system of hierarchical control from the highest level of NTRLs to RTRLs, to the District level laboratories. The QA has all elements of internal quality control, on-site evaluation and external quality control (EQA).

EQA for molecular WHO recommended rapid diagnostics (mWRD) including GeneXpert & Truenat is conducted using Dried Tube Specimen (DTS) for public as well as private sector laboratories through proficiency testing (PT) exercise which is conducted annually for laboratories to assess the quality of TB diagnosis and its drug resistance.