Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Pre-Treatment Delays, Detection, and Clinical Characteristics of Tuberculosis Patients in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China

Bibliographic Data

ID22073094
AuthorsXiaolin Wang (0000-0001-7237-5969, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), Wencong He (0000-0002-0655-1706, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention), Juan Lei (0000-0003-1725-9468, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), Guangtian Liu (0000-0002-5958-400X, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), Fei Huang (0000-0002-3709-5053, Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention), Yanlin Zhao (0000-0003-2772-3965), Zhao Yanlin (0000-0002-7890-4312, Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume9
Pages644536-644536
Publication date2021-05-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fpubh.2021.644536
PMID34095053
OpenAlexW3162055324
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited28

Background: To contain the pandemic of COVID-19, China has implemented a series of public health interventions that impacted the tuberculosis control substantially, but these impacts may vary greatly depending on the severity of the local COVID-19 epidemic. The impact of COVID-19 on TB control in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is little known. Methods: Based on the national TB Information Management System (TBIMS), this study accessed the actual impact of COVID-19 on TB by comparing TB notifications, pre-treatment delays, and clinical characteristics of TB cases between 2020 COVID-19 period and 2017–2019 baseline. The data were divided into three periods based on the response started to fight against COVID-19 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, including the control period (10 weeks before the pandemic), intensive period (10 weeks during the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region lockdown), and regular (10 additional weeks after Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region reopen). Results: TB notification dropped sharply in the first week of the intensive period but took significantly longer to return to the previous level in 2020 compared with the 2017–2019 baseline. Totally, the TB notification rates decreased by more than 60% in the intensive period of COVID-19 compared with the average level of 2017–2019. The sputum smear-positive rate of TB patients diagnosed in intensive period of COVID-19 was significantly higher than that in the corresponding periods of 2017–2019 ( P < 0.001). The rate of cavity on X-ray inspection of TB cases diagnosed in the intensive period of COVID-19 was significantly higher than that in period 2 of 2017–2019 (23.5 vs. 15.4%, P = 0.004). The patients' delay in the intensive period was significantly longer than that before the pandemic ( P = 0.047). Conclusions: The TB notification in Ningxia was impacted dramatically by the pandemic of COVID-19. To compensate for the large numbers of missed diagnosis as well as delayed diagnosis during the intensive period of COVID-19, an urgent restoration of normal TB services, and further emphasis on enhanced active case finding and scale-up of household contact tracing and screening for TB-related symptoms or manifestation, will be essential

Disease · Intensive care · Intensive care medicine · Pandemic · Pathology · Sputum · Tuberculosis · COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies · COVID-19 diagnosis using AI · Medicine · Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology · Internal Medicine