1. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis national reference laboratory services in the WHO European Region, March to November 2020
- Author
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Maurer, Florian P, Shubladze, Natalia, Kalmambetova, Gulmira, Felker, Irina, Kuchukhidze, Giorgi, Drobniewski, Francis, Yedilbayev, Askar, Ehsani, Soudeh, Avellón, Ana, Baydulloeva, Zamira, Chulanov, Vladimir, Cirillo, Daniela Maria, Kireev, Dmitry, Köser, Claudio U, Niemann, Stefan, Noroc, Ecaterina, Paredes, Roger, Schuurman, Rob, Sevastyanova, Elina V, Simões, Daniel, Skrahina, Alena, Stanojevic., Maja, and German Government
- Subjects
Tuberculosis ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Reference laboratory ,World Health Organization ,1117 Public Health and Health Services ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,COVID-19 Testing ,Tuberculosis diagnosis ,Virology ,Environmental health ,Pandemic ,diagnostics ,Medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Diagnostics ,Pandemics ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Workload ,European region ,medicine.disease ,PCR ,030228 respiratory system ,business ,Laboratories ,European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and Viral Hepatitis ,Rapid Communication ,Additional members of the European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and Viral Hepatitis core group (in alphabetical order) ,0605 Microbiology ,1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences - Abstract
We assessed the impact of COVID-19 on diagnostic services for tuberculosis (TB) by national reference laboratories in the WHO European Region. Of 35 laboratories, 30 reported declines in TB sample numbers, amounting up to > 50% of the pre-COVID-19 volumes. Sixteen reported reagent or consumable shortages. Nineteen reallocated ressources to SARS-CoV-2 testing, resulting in an overall increase in workload, largely without a concomitant increase in personnel (n = 14). This poses a risk to meeting the 2025 milestones of the End TB Strategy. Financial support for this work has been provided by the German Government. Sí
- Published
- 2021