1887
Research Open Access
Like 1

Abstract

Background

Essential health services, including for tuberculosis (TB), are being affected by public health and social measures (PHSM) introduced to control COVID-19. In many settings, TB resources, facilities and equipment are being redirected towards COVID-19 response.

Aim

We sought to assess the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on TB services in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region.

Methods

The fifty-three European Region Member States were asked to report qualitative and quantitative data in quarter one and two (Q1 and Q2) 2020. TB notifications were triangulated with the severity score on domestic movement restrictions to assess how they may have influenced TB detection.

Results

Twenty-nine countries reported monthly TB notifications for the first half of 2019 and 2020. TB notifications decreased by 35.5% during Q2 2020 compared with Q2 2019, which is six-fold more than the average annual decrease of 5.1% documented during 2015–2019. The number of patients enrolled in rifampicin-resistant/multidrug-resistant TB treatment also decreased dramatically in Q2 2020, by 33.5%. The highest movement restriction severity score was observed between April and May 2020, which coincided with the highest observed decrease in TB notifications.

Conclusion

A decrease in TB detection and enrolment to treatment may cause increases in TB burden and threatens the Region’s ability to reach the TB targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, still this might be mitigated with rapid restoration of TB services and the implementation of targeted interventions during periods with severe PHSM in place, such as those introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100231
2021-06-17
2024-12-14
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100231
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/26/24/eurosurv-26-24-6.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100231&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Committee. Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Geneva: WHO; 30 Jan 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)
  2. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Geneva: WHO. [Accessed: 5 May 2021]. Available from: https://covid19.who.int
  3. World Health Organization (WHO). Global tuberculosis report 2020. Geneva: WHO; 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240013131
  4. Dara M, Sotgiu G, Reichler MR, Chiang CY, Chee CBE, Migliori GB. New diseases and old threats: lessons from tuberculosis for the COVID-19 response. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2020;24(5):544-5.  https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.20.0151  PMID: 32398212 
  5. Anderson RM, Heesterbeek H, Klinkenberg D, Hollingsworth TD. How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic? Lancet. 2020;395(10228):931-4.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30567-5  PMID: 32164834 
  6. Pang Y, Liu Y, Du J, Gao J, Li L. Impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis control in China. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2020;24(5):545-7.  https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.20.0127  PMID: 32398213 
  7. Stop TB Partnership. The TB response is heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Geneva: Stop TB Partnership; 2020. Available from: http://stoptb.org/news/stories/2020/ns20_014.html
  8. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe). A systematic approach to monitoring and analysing public health and social measures (PHSM) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: underlying methodology and application of the PHSM database and PHSM Severity Index. Copenhagen: WHO/Europe; 2020. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/337686/WHO-EURO-2020-1610-41361-56329-eng.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
  9. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)/World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe). Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2021 –2019 data. Copenhagen: WHO/Europe; 2021. Available from: https://www.euro.who.int/en/publications/abstracts/tuberculosis-surveillance-and-monitoring-in-europe-2021-2019-data
  10. Flaxman S, Mishra S, Gandy A, Unwin HJT, Mellan TA, Coupland H, et al. Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe. Nature. 2020;584(7820):257-61.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2405-7  PMID: 32512579 
  11. Prem K, Liu Y, Russell TW, Kucharski AJ, Eggo RM, Davies N, et al. The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study. Lancet Public Health. 2020;5(5):e261-70.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30073-6  PMID: 32220655 
  12. McQuaid CF, McCreesh N, Read JM, Sumner T, Houben RMGJ, White RG, et al. The potential impact of COVID-19-related disruption on tuberculosis burden. Eur Respir J. 2020;56(2):2001718.  https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01718-2020  PMID: 32513784 
  13. Cilloni L, Fu H, Vesga JF, Dowdy D, Pretorius C, Ahmedov S, et al. The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tuberculosis epidemic a modelling analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2020;28:100603.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100603  PMID: 33134905 
  14. Glaziou P. Predicted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tuberculosis deaths in 2020; medRxiv. 4 May 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.28.20079582
  15. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe). Quick guide to video-supported treatment of tuberculosis. Copenhagen: WHO/Europe; 2020. Available from: https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/communicable-diseases/tuberculosis/publications/2020/quick-guide-to-video-supported-treatment-of-tuberculosis-2020
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100231
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error