Active tuberculosis identification based on workers environmental sanitation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that may complicate the active detection of Tuberculosis (TB) and increase the mortality rate. This pushes for more effective and efficient case finding to mitigate the possible growing number of TB mortality. Objective: The purpose of this research was to identify TB among workers and to analyze the correlation between human environmental behavioral and economic factors with TB findings among workers during the COVID-19 period. Methods: This research employed a case-control method conducted from January to December 2020. In total 120 employees were included in this research. The employees were divided into two groups sixty workers were involved in the TB case group and another sixty workers were in the control group. We reported TB patients from several Public Health Center (Puskesmas) in each regency of South Sumatera Indonesia. Sputum testing was performed by the rapid molecular tests (GeneXpert) and Ziehl-Neelsen to confirm the diagnosis of TB infection. We performed a Chi-square analysis to analyze factors that can influence TB cases. Results: In comparison to the control group we found the association of age body mass index occupation and sun exposure to the incidence of active TB cases (p0.05).Conclusion: Since statistically significant differences between the two groups have been identified the incidence of TB in workers might be affected by age occupation BMI and exposure to sunlight. Associated significant variables can be integrated into the TB control program for better case-finding practice to recognize concealed burdens of TB that are overlooked due to COVID-19. This research was funded by Sainteks Sriwijaya University 2020.

Tuberculosis and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) from A Clinical Perspective: A Systematic Review.

The aim of this review is to examine the effects of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis (TB) management and to highlight evidence of the extent of TB and COVID-19 co-infection. Current findings on TB and COVID-19 have been identified using six databases: Pubmed, Science Direct, Pubmed Central, MedXRiv, Wiley, and Google Scholar. This search in literature was conducted up to 8 May 2020. We included five studies that met the selection criteria. These selected studies have been performed in regions having various demographic characteristics including developed and developing countries, mainly China. The total number of participants in each study ranged from 24 to 203. The case fatality rate of patients with TB and COVID-19 co-infection was found to be high (6/49; 12.3 percent) while a combined diagnosis of TB and COVID-19 was found in 9/49 patients. This condition is linked to several complications, manifested as the need for ex novo oxygen supply, pneumothorax, and extreme hypoxia. Researches on BCG vaccination have shown that countries without vaccination policy are more likely to be seriously affected than those with BCG vaccination programs. COVID-19 infection in patients with TB or the lack of sufficient BCG vaccination may be associated with higher detrimental consequences, including mortality.