Clinical impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis

Abstract

During COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of diseases suffered from a limited access to health care services, owing to the use of resources, both technical and financial, mainly directed towards such a dramatic outbreak. Among these, tuberculosis (TB) has been one of the most penalized, with a huge delay both in diagnosis and in start of treatment, with a consequential dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality. COVID-19 and tuberculosis share similar common pathogenetic pathways, and both diseases affect primarily the lungs. About the impact of TB on COVID-19 severity and mortality, data are unclear and literature reports are often conflicting. Certainly, considering the management of coinfected patients, there are pharmacoki-netic interactions between several drugs used for the therapy of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the treatment of TB.