Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis national reference laboratory services in the WHO European Region, March to November 2020
Florian P. Maurer, Natalia Shubladze, Gulmira Kalmambetova, Irina Felker, Giorgi Kuchukhidze, Francis Drobniewski, Askar Yedilbayev, Soudeh Ehsani
Eurosurveillance · 2021-06
Abstract
We assessed the impact of COVID-19 on diagnostic services for tuberculosis (TB) by national reference laboratories in the WHO European Region. Of 35 laboratories, 30 reported declines in TB sample numbers, amounting up to > 50% of the pre-COVID-19 volumes. Sixteen reported reagent or consumable shortages. Nineteen reallocated ressources to SARS-CoV-2 testing, resulting in an overall increase in workload, largely without a concomitant increase in personnel (n = 14). This poses a risk to meeting the 2025 milestones of the End TB Strategy.
MeSH terms
- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
- Pandemic
- Economic shortage
- Workload
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
- Tuberculosis
- 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak
- Medicine
- Sample (material)
- Environmental health
- Geography