Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) incidence continues to rise in many parts of the world with increasing fatality. At the same time, tuberculosis (TB) has been identified as the leading cause of death amongst all infectious diseases globally. Routine screening of clients visiting health facilities can help to prevent the spread of these diseases. Aim: To assess the relationship between the practice of facility-based routine tuberculosis screening and routine screening for COVID-19. Methodology: Using a Snowball technique, a cross-sectional online survey was carried out during the national lockdown from 5 July to 5 August 2020. The target population for this survey was health care workers from the different health facilities across Nigeria. An online semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview healthcare workers to identify their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 and the practice of routine TB screening. Descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson’s Chi-square test was used for statistical comparative analysis. Results: This shows that 53.9% of healthcare workers did not practice routine TB screening while 46.9% did not practice routine COVID-19 screening. Respondents who practiced routine TB screening were found to be more likely to practice routine COVID-19 screening (p 0.001). Healthcare workers in primary healthcare centers were more likely to carry out routine screening for both diseases (p 0.001) and among these, Community Healthcare Workers were more likely to carry out routine screening for both diseases than other cadres (p 0.001). Conclusion/Recommendation: Routine screening for infectious diseases is still not institutionalized in the Nigerian health system, making the control of these diseases difficult. Continued sensitization on the need for routine screening for infectious diseases like TB and COVID-19 should be done for healthcare workers at the different levels in the health care system.
Highlights
World Health Organization (WHO) reported the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease for the first time on the 31st December 2019 and went on to declare it a pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020 [1]
Descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson’s Chi-square test was used for statistical comparative analysis. This shows that 53.9% of healthcare workers did not practice routine TB screening while 46.9% did not practice routine COVID-19 screening
There is a good knowledge of COVID-19 and its preventive measures among the surveyed health care workers
Summary
World Health Organization (WHO) reported the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease for the first time on the 31st December 2019 and went on to declare it a pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020 [1]. As of October 12th, 2020, the weekly updates by WHO showed 37,109,851 persons had been infected globally with 1,070,355 deaths and an estimated case fatality rate of 2.9% globally [1]. A high number of people who get infected with COVID-19 remain asymptomatic [1] These asymptomatic persons are more likely to be the source of transmission of the disease in the community if they do not follow protocols for the prevention of COVID-19 [1] which has been characterized by high morbidity and mortality rates [4]. An online semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview healthcare workers to identify their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 and the practice of routine TB screening. Results: This shows that 53.9% of healthcare workers did not practice routine TB screening while 46.9% did not practice routine COVID-19 screening. Healthcare workers in primary healthcare centers were more likely to carry
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