Tuberculosis Co-Infection Is Common in Patients Requiring Hospitalization for COVID-19 in Belarus: Mixed-Methods Study

Yuliia Sereda, Oleksandr Korotych, Dzmitry Klimuk, Dzmitry Zhurkin, Varvara Solodovnikova, Malgorzata Grzemska, Viatcheslav Grankov, Hennadz Hurevich, Askar Yedilbayev and Alena Skrahina
Additional contact information
Yuliia Sereda: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Oleksandr Korotych: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Dzmitry Klimuk: Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis, 157 Dolginovskij trakt, 220053 Minsk, Belarus
Dzmitry Zhurkin: Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis, 157 Dolginovskij trakt, 220053 Minsk, Belarus
Varvara Solodovnikova: Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis, 157 Dolginovskij trakt, 220053 Minsk, Belarus
Malgorzata Grzemska: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Viatcheslav Grankov: World Health Organization Country Office in Belarus, Fabriciusa str. 28 (Room 401), 220007 Minsk, Belarus
Hennadz Hurevich: Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis, 157 Dolginovskij trakt, 220053 Minsk, Belarus
Askar Yedilbayev: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Alena Skrahina: Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis, 157 Dolginovskij trakt, 220053 Minsk, Belarus

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: A significant drop in tuberculosis (TB) case-finding has been widely reported during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. To address a decrease in TB notification, Belarus introduced laboratory TB testing in patients with the laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted a secondary analysis of health records among 844 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis who were admitted to repurposed departments at TB hospitals and who were tested by Xpert MTB/RIF (Cepheid Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) in five Belarus regions between April and October 2021. Quantitative analysis followed by 13 individual interviews with health managers, physicians, and nurses participating in the intervention. Most patients were male (64%) and mean age was 43.5 ± 16 years. One in twenty (n = 47, 5.6%) patients were co-infected with active pulmonary TB, and over one-third of them (n = 18) had rifampicin resistance. In-hospital mortality was comparable in patients with and without TB co-infection (2.1% and 2.3% respectively, p > 0.99). Laboratory TB testing among patients with COVID-19 at repurposed departments of TB hospitals is feasible in Belarus and may improve TB case-finding.

Keywords: tuberculosis; rifampicin resistance; Xpert MTB/RIF; COVID-19; case-finding; Eastern Europe; operational research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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