Tuberculosis management in India during COVID-19 crisis
- PDF / 439,965 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 80 Downloads / 154 Views
Tuberculosis management in India during COVID‑19 crisis Avijit Kumar Awasthi1 · Pravin Kumar Singh2 Accepted: 25 October 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract During the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, critical services in India for tuberculosis (TB) have been disrupted. India has one of the highest burdens of TB and requires continuity of critical TB care. Here, we highlight important points and approaches that can be used to guide navigation of the combined COVID-19 and TB crisis in India. Keywords COVID-19 · TB care · TB health workers In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Tuberculosis (TB) a public health emergency and called for all nations to prioritize TB control efforts. TB may be treated successfully with a standard 6-month drug-regimen. However, multi-drug resistant-TB (MDR-TB) and extensive drug resistant-TB (XDR-TB) are very difficult to treat and require longer, more complex courses of treatment. TB affects India badly with the highest incidence (2.7 million) and number of deaths (0.4 million) recorded worldwide in 2018 [1].The rapid and unexpected surge in demand for diagnosis, treatment, and care of COVID-19 patients has interfered with routine health services around the world and in India. Importantly, this disruption has affected important TB notification and scheduled treatments. Although the number of COVID-19 cases has risen sharply in India, the case fatality ratio (CFR) remains low (2.8), especially in comparison to France, Italy, and the United Kingdom (15.3%, 14.4%, and, 14.2% respectively) [2]. The low CFR in India could be due to the timely response by the Government of India that included nation-wide lockdown, strengthening of existing health infrastructure, administrative commitment, awareness among population, dietary support and socio-economic protection for poor [3].
* Avijit Kumar Awasthi [email protected] 1
Intermediate Reference Laboratory, State TB Demonstration and Training Centre, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
2
Department of Biotechnology, GLA University, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India
Vol.:(0123456789)
A. K. Awasthi, P. K. Singh
At present, the attention of India, and the world, is focused on halting the spread of COVID-19. However, resultant gaps in TB care services could increase COVID19 case numbers as TB may increase susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 [4] while contributing to an increase in TB related morbidity and mortality from the halt in treatment. In India, where two deaths occur every three minutes from TB [1], real success in COVID-19 control cannot be ensured without the continuity of TB services in parallel. TB diagnosis, treatment and care in India is provided free of cost in the public sector by the Government’s National TB Elimination Program (NTEP). However, a large proportion of patients seek care through private sector health providers which is largely unorganized in India. Below, we highlight key adaptation strategies for TB screening and diagnosis, treatment, and prevention that could be integrated with the COVID-19 re
Data Loading...
