COVID-19 has impacted every possible sector of life. As more hospital beds are filled, more tests are being processed, more research is required, more funds are needed for treatment and research, the teams and people working to battle other diseases are at major risk. Forbes claims TB could be one of the biggest causalities to the adverse affects of routine health services due to COVID-19. Resources have become limited for TB testing, patients are unable to get to health care providers, and funding has diminished for TB research. COVID-19 is taking priority across the globe but how do we balance that treatment to treatment for every other infectious disease impacting our world?
In China and South Korea, laboratory testing for TB was halted or disrupted to process tests for COVID-19. Also hospitals were no longer able to hold patients infected with MDR-TB, even though South Korea requires a 2 week hospitalization for TB. This will not be seen in just these areas, but everywhere in the future. COVID-19 will limit hospital resources such as labs and beds available for other diseases. Keertan Dheda ,a TB, expert hypothesizes that there will be spike in TB incidence due to the delayed diagnosis leading to higher transmission.
This is where anticipation of these consequences comes in handy and health care teams need to understand how COVID-19 can affect TB and have backup plans to be able to help everyone in these times. TB and COVID-19 are both respiratory infections spread through respiratory droplets. TB patients and survivors often have lung damage which can lead them to be more susceptible to COVID-19. Over 95% of cases of TB happen in developing nations. To have their limited TB resources stripped further we are consequently putting more people at risk for COVID-19. We are trying to fight a war, and we are being attacked on all sides. It is up to the health care world to determine which sides to attack back however in health care that is not easy because lives are at risk in all cases. Which is why we as people need to do our part in this war by social distancing, quarantining and self isolation as needed.
This is why prevention is so crucial, we truly do not have the resources to help everyone and someone is going to have to be put on the back burner and this can lead to increased prevalence and even death. This would add to the preventable deaths already being seen in COVID-19 because people refuse to stay home or socially distance themselves. This is having much larger implications because now we are impacting those with health conditions other than TB. TB is curable and the WHO has a Sustainable Development Goal to end the TB epidemic by 2030. So let’s stay on track with that goal and please stay home we only have so many doctors, nurses, labs, hospital beds to treat everyone and every time you leave you possibly add to the number infected. Let us leave the beds for those who need it and not for those who still wanted to hang out with friends and go to the beach.
The Good, The Bad, The Microbiome 