Despite the limitation of resources, the tuberculosis research program has progressed to the attainment of its objectives by the initiation of projects that could help understand, control and prevent multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.   The program also aims to improve the diagnosis of pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis.  Dr. Jaime Montoya originally led the program.

The following were the research activities that have been initiated: 1) a community-based study on the prevalence and transmission patterns of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in an urban and rural setting in the province of Laguna; 2) a study of Mycobacterium vaccae as an immunotherapeutic agent in the management of pulmonary tuberculosis; 3) a study on the clinical, microbiologic, radiologic and pathologic features of drug-susceptible and resistant M. tuberculosis and mycobacteria other than tuberculosis in patients with HIV infection; 4) the detection of a novel family of tuberculosis isolates in the Philippines; and, 5) a study on the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cerebro-spinal fluid of smear-negative tuberculous meningitis using polymerase chain reaction with nested amplification.

With the reorganization of the Department of Health, the TB control program was further strengthened with the initial formal agreements between the Governments of the Philippines and Japan to setup the National TB Reference Laboratory at RITM.  A number of staff members from the national control program and other offices of the central Department of Health were deployed to RITM and became part of RITM staff.  Underway is the final agreement and subsequent preparation of RITM grounds for the construction of the National TB Reference Laboratory.