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Early COVID-19 pandemic's toll on tuberculosis services, WHO European Region, January to June 2020
- Source :
- Euro Surveillance, 26, 24, Euro Surveillance, 26, Eurosurveillance
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Background Essential health services, including for tuberculosis (TB), are being affected by public health and social measures (PHSM) introduced to control COVID-19. In many settings, TB resources, facilities and equipment are being redirected towards COVID-19 response. Aim We sought to assess the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on TB services in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. Methods The fifty-three European Region Member States were asked to report qualitative and quantitative data in quarter one and two (Q1 and Q2) 2020. TB notifications were triangulated with the severity score on domestic movement restrictions to assess how they may have influenced TB detection. Results Twenty-nine countries reported monthly TB notifications for the first half of 2019 and 2020. TB notifications decreased by 35.5% during Q2 2020 compared with Q2 2019, which is six-fold more than the average annual decrease of 5.1% documented during 2015–2019. The number of patients enrolled in rifampicin-resistant/multidrug-resistant TB treatment also decreased dramatically in Q2 2020, by 33.5%. The highest movement restriction severity score was observed between April and May 2020, which coincided with the highest observed decrease in TB notifications. Conclusion A decrease in TB detection and enrolment to treatment may cause increases in TB burden and threatens the Region’s ability to reach the TB targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, still this might be mitigated with rapid restoration of TB services and the implementation of targeted interventions during periods with severe PHSM in place, such as those introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Tuberculosis
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Epidemiology
030204 cardiovascular system & hematology
World Health Organization
World health
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Tuberculosis diagnosis
Virology
Environmental health
Pandemic
medicine
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Pandemics
biology
business.industry
SARS-CoV-2
Public health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
COVID-19
European region
medicine.disease
lnfectious Diseases and Global Health Radboud Institute for Health Sciences [Radboudumc 4]
Toll
biology.protein
Erratum
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1025496X
- Volume :
- 26
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Euro Surveillance
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6df3830a9b5d50df397298ccc03d519e