Tuberculosis remains a significant public health concern across the globe. India continues to carry a substantial burden of TB, accounting for nearly 25-27% of cases worldwide. Early and accurate detection is essential to interrupt TB transmission yet screening at the primary healthcare level—where most patients first seek care remains inadequate. Conventional approaches, while widely available, lack the sensitivity to detect cases with low bacterial load and early-stage disease, leading to missed or delayed diagnoses. Molecular diagnostics address this gap by offering significantly higher accuracy and the ability to detect TB earlier in the disease course, making them essential for effective screening and timely treatment initiation.

While molecular diagnostics have significantly improved the accuracy of TB detection, most existing platforms are designed for centralised settings rather than point-of-care use at the primary healthcare level. These systems typically require biosafety laboratory infrastructure (BSL-2/3), reliable electricity, temperature-controlled environments, and trained personnel. In addition, high costs, complex workflows, limited field utility, and dependencies on supply chain logistics—such as cold chain and consumables—limit their suitability for deployment at Primary Health Centres (PHCs). As a result, molecular testing remains inaccessible at the frontline, leading to continued reliance on suboptimal methods or referral-based pathways that delay diagnosis, increase patient drop-offs, and perpetuate gaps in early detection.

This underscores the need for affordable, point-of-care molecular screening solutions at the PHC level to enable timely, accurate, and equitable access to TB detection.