Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Andom, Afom T
• Fejfar, Donald
• Yuen, Courtney M
• Ndayizigiye, Melino
• Mugunga, Jean Claude
• Mukherjee, Joia S

Titel

The Impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis Program Performance in the Kingdom of Lesotho

Ist Teil von

• Tropical medicine and infectious disease, 2023-03, Vol.8 (3), p.165

Ort / Verlag

Switzerland: MDPI AG

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• As tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease requiring multi-month therapy, systems of TB detection and care were profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The worsening economic situation, including income, food, and housing insecurity, impacted the social conditions in which TB-already a leading killer in resource-limited settings-thrives. This study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on TB detection and treatment in Lesotho. We used routine program data from 78 health facilities in Lesotho. We created time series models from July 2018 to March 2021 to quantify COVID-19-related disruptions to TB program indicators: outpatient visits; presumptive, diagnosed, treated, and HIV co-infected cases; and treatment outcomes including successful (cured and completed) and unsuccessful (death and treatment outcome unknown). We observed a significant decline in cumulative outpatient visits (-37.4%, 95% prediction interval [PI]: -40.1%, -28.7%) and new TB cases diagnosed (-38.7%, 95%PI: -47.2%, -28.4%) during the pandemic, as well as TB-HIV co-infections (-67.0%, 95%PI: -72.6%, -60.0%). However, we observed no difference in treatment success (-2.1%, 95%PI: -17.0%, 15.8%). TB case detection in Lesotho fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely related to the uptake of overall health services. However, treatment success rates did not change, indicating a strong health system and the success of local strategies to maintain treatment programs.