SA’s TB tests drop over 30 per cent due to Covid-19
She predicts that SA may see an increase in childhood TB as a result of the lockdown. "Families were confined to their homes for several weeks. One adult with undiagnosed or untreated TB would have infected children at home
One of South Africa’s foremost tuberculosis (TB) researchers, Dr Francesca Conradie, a principal investigator at the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU), has called for a renewed focus on TB testing in the country to help find new TB cases that ‘went missing’ during the Covid-19 lockdown. TB testing, the mainstay of SA’s TB programme, took a severe knock during lockdown which has left many South Africans with undiagnosed TB.
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“We need to find them,” she says. “South Africa has a robust TB testing programme. Every year, we know how many tests we need to conduct to find TB cases. “There were 207 000 laboratory-confirmed TB cases in SA in 2019. “It is too early to tell how far below this figure we are for 2020. For HIV-positive people, the risk of developing “TB is far greater. Among people with latent TB infection, HIV infection is the main risk for progressing to TB disease. “As part of World Aids Day, the Clinical HIV Research Unit has called on healthcare workers to test patients with TB symptoms, especially HIV positive patients. People with symptoms should also ask for a TB test. TB spreads very easily because it is airborne. If left untreated, it is life-threatening. Delays in treatment can have a devastating impact on a person’s health while spreading it to others,” said Conradie. She predicts that SA may see an increase in childhood TB as a result of the lockdown. “Families were confined to their homes for several weeks. One adult with undiagnosed or untreated TB would have infected children at home.”
Also read: Screening and testing for Covid-19 continue in Mpumalanga
TB symptoms
The symptoms of TB are as follows: Coughing, chest pain, loss of weight, loss of appetite, coughing up blood, sweating at night, tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing.
According to Dr Harry Moultrie, senior medical epidemiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ Centre for Tuberculosis, “TB testing dropped by as much as 32 per cent between March and October this year.” The World Health Organization lists South Africa as a priority country given its high infection rates for TB, TB/HIV and drug-resistant TB.
