Damien Foundation Urban Leprosy & TB Centre (DFUL&TC) located in Nellore town, Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh is directly operated by DFIT.The project started Leprosy services in 1993 and TB in 1998. Soon after integration the project continued to be a referral centre for leprosy care and reconstructive surgery. The State has officially recognised the centre for RCS for the 3 districts (Anantapur, Kadapa and Nellore). The centre has a microscopy facility covering a population of 125065in Nellore urban for TB control services.
Damien TB Research Centre
Damien TB Research Centre (DTRC), a wing of DFUL&TRC in Nellore, established in 2008 has a 11bedded in-patient facility and a laboratory with Culture and Drug Susceptibility Test (DST) with the facilities for both phenotype and Genotype tests for Mycobacterium TB. The main objectives of DTRC are diagnosis and management of drug-resistant TB and TB research. The lab started functioning in the last quarter of 2009 after the accreditation and currently providing diagnostic services in 3 districts and follow up services in 5 districts. All the procedures are done as per the National guidelines.
The project has established separate wards to manage DRTB cases. At present patients from Nellore and Prakasam districts are supported for both treatment initiation and management of complications.