Pediatric TB detection in the era of COVID-19

Abstract

The effect of COVID-19 and measures in response to it on human lives, including healthcare, was enormous. The necessary healthcare services including communicable diseases, such as Tuberculosis (TB) were badly affected. Here an attempt has been made to trace the number of notified Pediatric TB cases during and after COVID-19 lockdown and unlock period, and then compared with the same period of previous year. The epidemic data on notified pediatric TB cases for 2019 and 2020 were extracted from the Health Management Information System (HMIS) database. The absolute numbers of monthly pediatric TB notifications from January to September for the year 2020 were compared to 2019, and the percentage decrease was estimated. The HMIS data shows that there is a significant decrease in pediatric TB notifications during COVID-19 epidemic in India. Especially, when the lockdown and related restrictions in response to COVID-19 was imposed, notifications were significantly decreased compared to the same period during the previous year. Even, the reduction numbers of pediatric TB notifications during post-lockdown are still more worrying. Though, little improvements were observed suddenly after lockdown was removed, but then-after again consisted decrease was reported; and these numbers again substantially lower than the numbers of previous year. Adequate measures to diagnose, control, and prevent TB focusing young children, should be implemented simultaneously with response to COVID-19 pandemic. Further, effective steps should be taken to remove the fear arising due COVID-19 pandemic among masses, so that the healthcare seeking may be improved.