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Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Novel Systematic Screening Approach for Tuberculosis among Individuals Suspected or Recovered from COVID-19: Experiences from Niger and Guinea

2022; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 7; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/tropicalmed7090228

2414-6366

Aboubacar Sidiki Magassouba, Mahamadou Bassirou Souleymane, Almamy Amara Touré, Boubacar Diallo, Soumana Alphazazi, Diao Cissé, Mohamed Sitan Keita, Elhadj Saidou Seyabatou, Adama Marie Bangoura, Hugues Asken Traoré, Tom Decroo, Jonathon R. Campbell, Vanessa Veronese, Corinne Merle,

COVID-19 diagnosis using AI

Evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacts tuberculosis (TB) activities. As TB and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, we assessed the effectiveness of integrated TB/COVID-19 screening in Guinea and Niger. From May to December 2020, TB screening was offered to symptomatic patients after a negative COVID-19 PCR test or after recovery from COVID-19 in Guinea. From December 2020 to March 2021, all presumptive COVID-19 patients with respiratory symptoms were tested simultaneously for COVID-19 and TB in Niger. We assessed the TB detection yield and used micro-costing to estimate the costs associated with both screening algorithms. A total of 863 individuals (758 in Guinea, and 105 in Niger), who were mostly male (60%) and with a median age of 34 (IQR: 26-45), were screened for TB. Reported symptoms were cough ≥2 weeks (49%), fever (45%), and weight loss (30%). Overall, 61 patients (7%) tested positive for COVID-19 (13 in Guinea, 48 in Niger) and 43 (4.9%) were diagnosed with TB disease (35 or 4.6% in Guinea, and 8 or 7.6% in Niger). The cost per person initiating TB treatment was USD $367 in Guinea and $566 in Niger. Overall, the yield of both approaches was high, and the cost was modest. Optimizing integrated COVID-19/TB screening may support maintaining TB detection during the ongoing pandemic.