RESUMO
ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the control of diseases by overwhelming healthcare systems, and tuberculosis (TB) notifications may have been affected. This study aimed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on TB notifications in the Sao Paulo State. This is a retrospective study examining TB notifications extracted from the TBweb database (Jan 2015 to Dec 2022). We conducted an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis of TB notifications using the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic as the interrupting event (Bayesian causal impact analysis). A total of 177,103 notifications of TB incident cases were analyzed, revealing a significant decrease in 2020 (13%) and in 2021 (9%), which lost significance in 2022. However, changes were not associated with population density or the area of the regions. Future analyses of the effects of TB underdiagnosis might help describe the impact of underreporting on future TB incidence and mortality.
RESUMO
Objective: This study aimed to analyze the incidence and epidemiological profile of tuberculosis (TB) cases registered in a region of the State of São Paulo (SP) and to assess the impact of COVID19 on TB incidence and completeness of notifications. Methods: This is a retrospective crosssectional study analyzing reports of adult patients with TB, who were notified in the TB-Web from January 2010 to December 2020. Sociodemographic (e.g. sex, race and scholarity) and clinical variables (e.g., clinical form, types of cases and comorbidities) were collected and analyzed. The completeness of TB notifications and the impact of COVID-19 on TB notifications were evaluated, considering the year of 2020. The study was reported following Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist for cross-sectional studies [CAAE 33166620.0.0000.0102]. Results: A total of 1,509 notifications were included, with a mean incidence of 48.5/100,000 inhabitants. The median age was 42 years, most notification included males (71%), were of white race (42%) and had the pulmonary form of TB (85%). In assessing the impact of the pandemic on notifications in 2020, there was a decrease of 36% in the number of TB notifications, with an emphasis between July and August, which was the peak period of COVID-19 cases in the region. No change in the completeness of TB notifications was observed in this period. Conclusions: Results indicate the clinical and epidemiological profile in a region of SP between 2010 and 2020. The pandemic led to a decrease in the number of TB notifications but did not change the completeness of notifications.