Is a patient with tuberculosis more susceptible to covid?
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Hello, one of my distant relative is suffering from tuberculosis. Is a patient with tuberculosis more susceptible to covid? I would like to know about this so that we can take extra care of him. Please leave your comments.
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@gilli Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and tuberculosis (TB) are two major infectious diseases posing significant public health threats, and their coinfection (aptly abbreviated COVID-TB) makes the situation worse. The initial signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to other respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis (TB) and influenza. However, coinfections with common viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens among COVID-19 patients are not unusual, which can interfere with the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, TB had been the most fatal infectious disease in the world for many years. Globally, an estimated 10 million people contracted TB and 1.4 million died from TB in 2019. At present, evidence suggests that the main transmission route of both COVID-19 and TB is via respiratory droplets, and their main target are the lungs, which can lead to a worse outcome among COVID-19 and TB coinfection patients (aptly abbreviated COVID-TB). Therefore, due to the high prevalence of both of these infectious diseases and the potential worse prognosis of coinfection, an intensive investigation of COVID-TB cases may be of great clinical significance. However, few studies have focused on COVID-TB cases to date, and most of these are case reports involving only one patient, thus precluding systematic summaries of the clinical characteristics of coinfection cases. In addition, it is unclear whether COVID-TB patients have a worse prognosis or are more likely to develop severe disease, thus necessitating further study.