The impact of COVID-19 on TB: a review of the data

McQuaid, Christopher Finn; Vassall, Anna; Cohen, Ted; Fiekert, Kathy; White, Richard G.

doi:10.5588/ijtld.21.0148

Cited by 190 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 87 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…A recent review by McQuaid et al provides a detailed summary of studies that have quantified the country-level TB service disruptions among the 48 TB, TB-HIV and multidrug-resistant HBCs. 12 The overall conclusion was that TB health services have decreased significantly in these settings due to COVID-19. In order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on TB, a comprehensive and coordinated approach to TB care and control that addresses the multiple layers of TB care is urgently needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tuberculosis in times of COVID-19

Zimmer

Klinton

Oga‐Omenka

et al. 2021

J Epidemiol Community Health

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruptions to tuberculosis (TB) care and service delivery in 2020, setting back progress in the fight against TB by several years. As newer COVID-19 variants continue to devastate many low and middle-income countries in 2021, the extent of this setback is likely to increase. Despite these challenges, the TB community can draw on the comprehensive approaches used to manage COVID-19 to help restore progress and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on TB. Our team developed the ‘Swiss Cheese Model for Ending TB’ to illustrate that it is only through multisectoral collaborations that address the personal, societal and health system layers of care that we will end TB. In this paper, we examine how COVID-19 has impacted the different layers of TB care presented in the model and explore how we can leverage some of the lessons and outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen the global TB response.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tuberculosis in times of COVID-19

Zimmer

Klinton

Oga‐Omenka

et al. 2021

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…Despite the seemingly different COVID-19 experience in SSA, a major unintended consequence of widespread lockdowns was the severe disruptions in the continent's response to its main infectious disease killers, including the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic [8,9]. In 2020, there were 10 million incident TB cases globally, with the Africa region accounting for approximately 25% of TB cases [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis Case Detection and Treatment Outcomes in Sierra Leone

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected tuberculosis (TB) care delivery in high burden countries. We therefore conducted a retrospective study to assess the impact of COVID-19 on TB case detection and treatment outcomes at the Chest Clinic at Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Overall, 2300 presumptive cases were tested during the first three quarters of 2020 (intra-COVID-19) versus 2636 in 2019 (baseline), representing a 12.7% decline. Testing declined by 25% in women, 20% in children and 81% in community-initiated referrals. Notwithstanding, laboratory-confirmed TB cases increased by 37.0% and treatment success rate was higher in 2020 (55.6% vs. 46.7%, p = 0.002). Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that age < 55 years (aOR 1.74, 95% CI (1.80, 2.56); p = 0.005), new diagnosis (aOR 1.69, 95% CI (1.16, 2.47); p = 0.007), pulmonary TB (aOR 3.17, 95% CI (1.67, 6.04); p < 0.001), HIV negative status (aOR 1.60, 95%CI (1.24, 2.06); p < 0.001) and self-administration of anti-TB drugs through monthly dispensing versus directly observed therapy (DOT) (aOR 1.56, 95% CI (1.21, 2.03); p = 0.001) independently predicted treatment success. These findings may have policy implications for DOTS in this setting and suggest that more resources are needed to reverse the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB program activities in Sierra Leone.

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“…Even though 2020 witnessed the dramatic health threat by COVID-19 leading to morbidity and mortality rates that exceeded those of TB, it is likely that in the near future TB will regain its inglorious lead position of the major killer amongst all infectious agents (Stop Tb Partnership Civil society-led Tb/ Covid-19 Working Group, 2020;McQuaid et al, 2021;World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). COVID-19 has dramatically impacted on TB notification rates with serious consequences for TB control.…”

Section: From Bacille Calmette-guérin To Novel Vaccine Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccine Development Against Tuberculosis Over the Last 140 Years: Failure as Part of Success

Kaufmann

2021

Front. Microbiol.

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The year 2020 was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic which killed more people than any other infectious disease in this particular year. At the same time, the development of highly efficacious COVID-19 vaccines within less than a year raises hope that this threat can be tamed in the near future. For the last 200 years, the agent of tuberculosis (TB) has been the worst killer amongst all pathogens. Although a vaccine has been available for 100 years, TB remains a substantial threat. The TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), has saved tens of millions of lives since its deployment. It was the best and only choice available amongst many attempts to develop efficacious vaccines and all competitors, be they subunit vaccines, viable vaccines or killed whole cell vaccines have failed. Yet, BCG is insufficient. The last decades have witnessed a reawakening of novel vaccine approaches based on deeper insights into immunity underlying TB and BCG immunization. In addition, technical advances in molecular genetics and the design of viral vectors and adjuvants have facilitated TB vaccine development. This treatise discusses firstly early TB vaccine developments leading to BCG as the sole preventive measure which stood the test of time, but failed to significantly contribute to TB control and secondly more recent attempts to develop novel vaccines are described that focus on the genetically modified BCG-based vaccine VPM1002, which has become the frontrunner amongst viable TB vaccine candidates. It is hoped that highly efficacious vaccines against TB will become available even though it remains unclear whether and when this ambition can be accomplished. None the less it is clear that the goal of reducing TB morbidity and mortality by 90% or 95%, respectively, by 2030 as proposed by the World Health Organization depends significantly on better vaccines.

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The impact of COVID-19 on TB: a review of the data

Cited by 190 publications

References 87 publications

Tuberculosis in times of COVID-19

Tuberculosis in times of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis Case Detection and Treatment Outcomes in Sierra Leone

Vaccine Development Against Tuberculosis Over the Last 140 Years: Failure as Part of Success

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