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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Oct 21;16(10):e0259006.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259006. eCollection 2021.

Active pulmonary tuberculosis and coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ashutosh Nath Aggarwal  1 , Ritesh Agarwal  1 , Sahajal Dhooria  1 , Kuruswamy Thurai Prasad  1 , Inderpaul Singh Sehgal  1 , Valliappan Muthu  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Active pulmonary tuberculosis and coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ashutosh Nath Aggarwal et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: The proportion of COVID-19 patients having active pulmonary tuberculosis, and its impact on COVID-19 related patient outcomes, is not clear. We conducted this systematic review to evaluate the proportion of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis among COVID-19 patients, and to assess if comorbid pulmonary tuberculosis worsens clinical outcomes in these patients.

Methods: We queried the PubMed and Embase databases for studies providing data on (a) proportion of COVID-19 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis or (b) severe disease, hospitalization, or mortality among COVID-19 patients with and without active pulmonary tuberculosis. We calculated the proportion of tuberculosis patients, and the relative risk (RR) for each reported outcome of interest. We used random-effects models to summarize our data.

Results: We retrieved 3,375 citations, and included 43 studies, in our review. The pooled estimate for proportion of active pulmonary tuberculosis was 1.07% (95% CI 0.81%-1.36%). COVID-19 patients with tuberculosis had a higher risk of mortality (summary RR 1.93, 95% CI 1.56-2.39, from 17 studies) and for severe COVID-19 disease (summary RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.05-2.02, from 20 studies), but not for hospitalization (summary RR 1.86, 95% CI 0.91-3.81, from four studies), as compared to COVID-19 patients without tuberculosis.

Conclusion: Active pulmonary tuberculosis is relatively common among COVID-19 patients and increases the risk of severe COVID-19 and COVID-19-related mortality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow chart for study selection.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Proportion of COVID-19 patients also having tuberculosis and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Individual proportion estimates are depicted by solid squares, and the corresponding country estimate of annual tuberculosis incidence by hollow circles.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Relative risk, and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI), of adverse clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients having tuberculosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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