THE Batangas Medical Center inaugurated its newly expanded Tuberculosis (TB) Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing Laboratory today, marking World TB Day. The facility will help to ramp up the testing and detection of TB cases in Region 4A (Calabarzon).

According to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the region has the second most congested jails in the Philippines, making detainees highly vulnerable to contracting the disease. Officials of the hospital, the Department of Health (DoH), the National TB Reference Laboratory, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which jointly supported the project, attended the opening of the facility.