Covid-19 recovered patients in Karnataka afflicted with tuberculosis; state to step up screening measures

Over 28 lakh Covid-19 recoveries have been reported in the state so far and since both coronavirus and tuberculosis affect the lungs a special drive has been launched to help detect it early

Patients who have made a full recovery from Covid-19 are contracting tuberculosis (TB) in Karnataka. The state has recorded 23-25 such cases so far, and as an added precaution the government has started screening all Covid-19 recovered patients for TB, Karnataka health minister Dr K Sudhakar told news agency ANI on Thursday.

India has seen a fall of 25% in the number of tuberculosis cases reported in 2020 as compared to the previous year. (HT FILE PHOTO)

“As a precautionary measure, we have thought of conducting TB screening for all Covid-19 recovered persons,” he added.

Sudhakar informed the Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday that over 28 lakh recoveries have been reported in the state so far and since both coronavirus and TB affect the lungs a special drive has been launched to help detect TB early.

“There are more than 28 lakh people in the state who have recovered from the Covid-19 infection. Since both Covid-19 and TB infect the lungs, we have launched a special drive to ensure early detection of TB in people who have recovered from the virus," he said.

“People who have recovered from Covid-19 should voluntarily get themselves evaluated for TB. If it is detected at an early stage the treatment will become easier", Sudhakar added.

India has seen a fall of 25% in the number of TB cases reported in 2020 as compared to the previous year, the Union health ministry said in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session. According to the official figures presented by the ministry in the lower house, India reported 1.8 million TB cases between January and December 2020 as compared to 2.4 million the year before.

Fear of contracting the virus and closure of out-patient clinics due to the pandemic impacted screening and testing measures, a fact which Sudhakar himself reiterated in the assembly on Wednesday. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the Prime Minister’s vision of ushering in a TB-free India by 2025.

The ministry of science and technology announced on Wednesday that researchers from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa — all of whom belong to the group of 24 countries recognised by the World Health Organisation as the countries with the highest caseload of TB —will be studying the impact of Covid-19 on epidemiological characteristics of TB infection and search for mechanisms responsible for the interaction of these two processes.