Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Control: An Overview

doi:10.3390/tropicalmed5030123

. 2020 Jul 24;5(3):123.

doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed5030123.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Control: An Overview

Kefyalew Addis Alene^{1

2}, Kinley Wangdi³, Archie C A Clements^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.
² Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
³ Department of Global Health, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

PMID: 32722014
PMCID: PMC7558533
DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed5030123

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Control: An Overview

Kefyalew Addis Alene et al. Trop Med Infect Dis. 2020.

. 2020 Jul 24;5(3):123.

doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed5030123.

Authors

Kefyalew Addis Alene^{1

2}, Kinley Wangdi³, Archie C A Clements^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.
² Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
³ Department of Global Health, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

PMID: 32722014
PMCID: PMC7558533
DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed5030123

Abstract

Throughout history, pandemics of viral infections such as HIV, Ebola and Influenza have disrupted health care systems, including the prevention and control of endemic diseases. Such disruption has resulted in an increased burden of endemic diseases in post-pandemic periods. The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could cause severe dysfunction in the prevention and control of tuberculosis (TB), the infectious disease that causes more deaths than any other, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where the burden of TB is high. The economic and health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the public health measures currently taken to stop the spread of the virus may have an impact on household TB transmission, treatment and diagnostic services, and TB prevention and control programs. Here, we provide an overview of the potential impact of COVID-19 on TB programs and disease burden, as well as possible strategies that could help to mitigate the impact.

Keywords: COVID-19; control; endemic; impact; overview; pandemic; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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[1] Comas I., Coscolla M., Luo T., Borrell S., Holt K.E., Kato-Maeda M., Parkhill J., Malla B., Berg S., Thwaites G., et al. Out-of-Africa migration and Neolithic coexpansion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with modern humans. Nat. Genet. 2013;45:1176–1182. doi: 10.1038/ng.2744. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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[3] Kyu H.H., Maddison E.R., Henry N.J., Mumford J.E., Barber R., Shields C., Brown J.C., Nguyen G., Carter A., Wolock T.M., et al. The global burden of tuberculosis: Results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet Infect. Dis. 2018;18:261–284. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30703-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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[6] Houben R.M., Dodd P.J. The global burden of latent tuberculosis infection: A re-estimation using mathematical modelling. PLoS Med. 2016;13:e1002152. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002152. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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[8] WHO . Global Tuberculosis Report 2019. World Health Organization; Geneva, Switzerland: 2019.

[9] Vynnycky E., Fine P. Interpreting the decline in tuberculosis: The role of secular trends in effective contact. Int. J. Epidemiol. 1999;28:327–334. doi: 10.1093/ije/28.2.327. - DOI - PubMed

[10] Vynnycky E., Fine P. Interpreting the decline in tuberculosis: The role of secular trends in effective contact. Int. J. Epidemiol. 1999;28:327–334. doi: 10.1093/ije/28.2.327. - DOI - PubMed

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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Control: An Overview

Affiliations

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuberculosis Control: An Overview

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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References

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