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Fighting Tuberculosis in Africa: The Current Situation Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2022

Olivier Uwishema ,
Rawa Badri ,
Helen Onyeaka Open the ORCID record for Helen Onyeaka [Opens in a new window] ,
Melody Okereke ,
Samaa Akhtar Open the ORCID record for Samaa Akhtar [Opens in a new window] ,
Melissa Mhanna ,
Bilal Zafar ,
Amirsaman Zahabioun ,
Khanafi A. Said Open the ORCID record for Khanafi A. Said [Opens in a new window]  and
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone Open the ORCID record for Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone [Opens in a new window]
Olivier Uwishema
Affiliation:
Oli Health Magazine Organization, Research and Education, Kigali, Rwanda Clinton Global Initiative University, New York, USA Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
Rawa Badri
Affiliation:
Oli Health Magazine Organization, Research and Education, Kigali, Rwanda Mycetoma Research Centre, Khartoum, Sudan Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
Helen Onyeaka
Affiliation:
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B152TT, UK
Melody Okereke
Affiliation:
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Samaa Akhtar
Affiliation:
City, University of London, Central London, UK
Melissa Mhanna
Affiliation:
Oli Health Magazine Organization, Research and Education, Kigali, Rwanda Faculty of Medicine, University of Saint Joseph of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Bilal Zafar
Affiliation:
Oli Health Magazine Organization, Research and Education, Kigali, Rwanda Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan
Amirsaman Zahabioun
Affiliation:
Clinton Global Initiative University, New York, USA The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Khanafi A. Said
Affiliation:
University of Dar es Salaam, Mbeya College of Health and Allied Sciences (UDSM-MCHAS), Tanzania
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone*
Affiliation:
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Globally, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading infectious causes of mortality, with around 4000 deaths daily. Since the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa, the region has experienced a lapse in responses directed at TB control, because the priority has shifted to interventions aimed at managing COVID-19. In addition to an unprecedented burden on the region’s already overburdened health systems, another major public health concern is the clinical similarities between COVID-19 and TB, making TB diagnosis increasingly challenging, which may lead to poor prognosis, especially in people with TB and COVID-19 co-infection. A likely implication is that TB patients may stop attending health-care facilities due to fear of contracting or being diagnosed with COVID-19 or to avoid being stigmatized, invariably resulting in a disruption in their access to health-care services. Therefore, massive global support should be provided for TB endemic countries to respond synergistically and strongly to the thousands of TB cases as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

tuberculosisCOVID-19pandemicsAfricahealth-care disparities
Type
Policy Analysis
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 2302 - 2304
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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