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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) infectiousness decreases significantly with only a few days of treatment, but delayed diagnosis often leads to late treatment initiation. We conducted a sequential explanatory mixed methods study to understand the barriers and facilitators to prompt diagnosis among people with TB., Methods: We enrolled 100 adults who started TB treatment in the Carabayllo district of Lima, Peru, between November 2020 and February 2022 and administered a survey about their symptoms and healthcare encounters. We calculated total diagnostic delay as time from symptom onset to diagnosis. We conducted semi-structured interviews of 26 participants who had a range of delays investigating their experience navigating the health system. Interview transcripts were inductively coded for concepts related to diagnostic barriers and facilitators., Results: Overall, 38% of participants sought care first from public facilities and 42% from the private sector. Only 14% reported being diagnosed with TB on their first visit, and participants visited a median of 3 (interquartile range [IQR] health facilities before diagnosis. The median total diagnostic delay was 9 weeks (interquartile range [IQR] 4-22), with a median of 4 weeks (IQR 0-9) before contact with the health system and of 3 weeks (IQR 0-9) after. Barriers to prompt diagnosis included participants attributing their symptoms to an alternative cause or having misconceptions about TB, and leading them to postpone seeking care. Once connected to care, variations in clinical management, health facility resource limitations, and lack of formal referral processes contributed to the need for multiple healthcare visits before obtaining a diagnosis. Facilitators to prompt diagnosis included knowing someone with TB, supportive friends and family, referral documents, and seeing a pulmonologist., Conclusions: Misinformation about TB among people with TB and providers, poor accessibility of health services, and the need for multiple encounters to obtain diagnostic tests were major factors leading to delays. Extending the hours of operation of public health facilities, improving community awareness and provider training, and creating a formal referral process between the public and private sectors should be priorities in the efforts to combat TB., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In Latin America, little is known about the involvement of private health-care providers in tuberculosis (TB) detection and management. We sought to gain a better understanding of current and potential roles of the private sector in delivering TB services in Peru. We conducted a mixed-methods study in North Lima, Peru. The quantitative component comprised a patient pathway analysis assessing the alignment of TB services with patient care-seeking behavior. The qualitative component comprised in-depth interviews with 18 private health-care providers and 5 key informants. We estimated that 77% of patients sought care initially at a facility with TB diagnostic capacity and 59% at a facility with TB treatment capacity. Among private facilities, 43% offered smear microscopy, 13% offered radiography, and none provided TB treatment. Among public-sector facilities, 100% offered smear microscopy, 26% offered radiography, and 99% provided TB treatment. Private providers believed they offered shorter wait times and a faster diagnosis, but they struggled with a lack of referral systems and communication with the public sector. Nonrecognition of private-sector tests by the public sector led to duplicate testing of referred patients. Although expressing willingness to collaborate with public-sector programs for diagnosis and referral, private providers had limited interest in treating TB. This study highlights the role of private providers in Peru as an entry point for TB care. Public-private collaboration is necessary to harness the potential of the private sector as an ally for early diagnosis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted TB services worldwide, leading to diagnostic delays. There have been few published reports describing how the pandemic affected people's pathway to diagnosis from their own perspectives. We sought to evaluate the impact on the pandemic on people's experiences obtaining a TB diagnosis., Methods: We performed a mixed-methods study, enrolling newly diagnosed TB patients from 12 health centers in Lima, Peru. We used structured surveys to quantify diagnostic delay, defined as the time between symptom onset and diagnosis, and in-depth interviews to understand the ways in which the pandemic affected the pathway to care. We compared diagnostic delay between patients enrolled during the first year of the pandemic to those diagnosed after using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. We used an inductive content analysis approach to analyze interview content related to the pandemic., Results: We enrolled 51 patients during November 2020-April 2021 (during the first year of the pandemic) and 49 patients during October 2021-February 2022. Median diagnostic delay was longer for patients diagnosed during the first year of the pandemic (median 15 [IQR 5-26] weeks compared to 6 [IQR 3-18] weeks, p = 0.027). Qualitative analysis of 26 interviews revealed that the pandemic affected participants' care-seeking behavior and their ability to access to TB diagnostic services, particularly for those diagnosed in the first year of the pandemic. Many participants initially had their symptoms attributed to COVID-19, resulting in delayed TB evaluation and additional costs for COVID-19 treatment., Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted multiple steps in the pathway to care for TB patients in Lima, causing delays in TB diagnosis. These findings demonstrate how the shifting of health care resources to prioritize COVID-19 can lead to collateral damage for people with TB and other conditions., (© 2022. The Author(s).)