Integrating health planning and primary care infrastructure for COVID-19 and tuberculosis care in India: Challenges and opportunities.
Int J Health Plann Manage
; 37(2): 632-642, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1530151
ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic has overburdened healthcare services around the world especially in resource constrained settings. It has shaken already unstable foundation of TB control programs in India and other high burden states. A 25% decline is expected in TB detection while estimates suggest 13% increase in TB deaths due to the impact of the pandemic. However, the significant intersections between the two diseases perhaps offer potential opportunities for consolidating the efforts to tackle both. The widespread implementation and acceptance of universal masking and social distancing in India has helped limit transmission of both diseases. Integrating the capacity building strategies for the two diseases, optimizing the existing the surveillance and monitoring systems which have been achieved over the years will result in a single vertically integrated national program addressing both, rather than multiple parallel program which utilize the already sparse primary care manpower and infrastructure. In this article, we explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis in India and offer suggestions on how effective health planning can efficiently integrate infrastructure and manpower at primary level to provide care for both COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tuberculosis
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Health Plann Manage
Journal subject:
Health Services Research
/
Health Services
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Hpm.3393
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