The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis services

Abstract

Severe lack of funding and resources meant that struggling tuberculosis (TB) services were weak and ill-equipped to deal with the simultaneous coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and TB pandemics (syndemic).Furthermore, unsafe and challenging working conditions, exacerbated by the reallocation of staff, diagnostic platforms, and beds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, saw significant reductions in the number of health facilities offering TB diagnostic and treatment services. Consequently, case detection and treatment enrolment in 2020 fell by 23% (compared with 2019) among the nine countries accounting for 60% of the global TB burden, thus eliminating 12 years of progress in the global fight against TB...