Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis patients and tuberculosis control programs in Turkey, review and analysis

Archives of Public Health

Research

Muhammet Ali Oruc¹  Sule Ozdemir²  Derya Oztomurcuk³ 

[1] Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Samsun University, Samsun, Turkey;Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Samsun University, Samsun, Turkey;Department of Public Health, Provincial Directorate of Health, Samsun, Turkey;

关键词: Health policy;    Tuberculosis control;    COVID-19;    Epidemiology;    Pandemic;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13690-022-01007-w

 received in 2022-02-27, accepted in 2022-11-28,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMany infectious diseases, including Tuberculosis (TB), have been put in the background with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the changes in the number of TB patients, the parameters of the TB patients and tuberculosis control programs in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey when compared to the previous year.MethodsAll TB patients who were recorded in Samsun province between March 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 were included in this retrospective study. The data were analyzed in 2 groups as the COVID-19 period (March 2020 and February 2021) and the Pre-COVID-19 period (March 2019 and February 2020),the demographic and microbiological characteristics of the tuberculosis patients in both periods were compared according to months and years p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe total number of TB patients was 320, although it was 172 in the Pre-COVID-19 period, it was 148 in the COVID-19 pandemic period. It was found that the TB incidence rate (IR) was 15.32%, the total number of examinations performed in TB dispensary decreased 33.54%, and the total number of contact examinations decreased by 53.54% during the pandemic period. The mean age of the patients decreased significantly during the COVID-19 period (p = 0.047), and it was found that culture positivity rates and smear positivity rates increased compared to the previous year (7.97%, p = 0.166, 1.86%; p = 0.507, respectively). SARS-CoV-2 PCR test result was found to be (−) in 46 (82.1%) of the 56 TB patients who were examined.ConclusionsIn the present study, it was found that the incidence of TB, the number of examinations, and the number of contact examinations decreased at significant levels. The decrease in TB patients was mostly in the first 3 months when COVID-19 precautions and restrictions were intense. As a conclusion, it was observed that the application of TB patients to the healthcare institution and TB control were affected negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

Fig. 2