Government has banned inaccurate blood tests in private hospitals to detect tuberculosis,TB. Following the findings of an expert group, the Union health ministry has banned the import of sero-diagnostic kits, saying it is giving inconsistent and imprecise results leading to wrong diagnosis of the air-borne disease.The official gazette notification says, their use is likely to involve risk to human beings, and safer alternatives are available. An expert group, set up by the Drug Controller General of India, DCGI , had found that blood tests are mostly inaccurate for TB detection. The committee has said it is not advisable to use blood tests and hence should be banned. AIR Correspondent reports,most of these ELISA kits are imported from France and the UK. However, these countries themselves do not approve the same tests for clinical use on their own TB patients.The World Health Organization, in its first-ever negative policy recommendation, recently called on governments to immediately ban blood tests prescribed and used to detect TB, mainly in the private sector.Despite the evidence against blood tests to detect TB, experts say 15 lakh TB serological tests are estimated to be done in India, with patients spending an estimated 75 crore rupees annually on such tests.