The impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis diagnosis

<b>Introduction:</b> The impact of COVID-19 on the transmission of&nbsp;M. tuberculosis&nbsp;has not yet been accurately ascertained. In addition to the exposure of contacts in household settings, it will be worth considering the impact of respiratory contacts in the community and health care settings, due to the widespread use of masks. <b>Aims and Objectives:</b> We aimed to know if there is an increase in a local hospital TB diagnosis in the post-pandemic period and which causes are associated with that increase. <b>Methods:</b> We collected data from April 2018 to December 2021 and divided it into two 20 months groups – pre-pandemic (Apr18'-Jan20') and post-pandemic (Mar20'-Dec21'). We analyzed sociodemographic variables, time to diagnosis and type of tuberculosis. <b>Results and Discussion</b> We notified a total of 41 cases after the pandemic started, a 78% increase from the pre-pandemic period (N=23). This increase happened mainly in patients who worked in the primary sector of the economy (agriculture), showing a 4.6x increase in the number of cases (p&lt;0.05) and is probably related to household transmission in low socioeconomic backgrounds. The mean age was 51 years, and most of the patients (78.5%) were male. Time until diagnosis was 102 days (compared to 82 days before). Increased time until diagnosis was independent of any of the variables studied (p&gt;0.05) and happened across all groups. People with&gt;6 months of symptoms were more frequent after Mar209 (8 vs 2). <b>Conclusions:</b> The number of cases and the time to diagnosis increased after the onset of the pandemic. The increase was cross-sectional for all groups of patients. The increase in cases occurred mainly in farmworkers, with 40% of post-pandemic cases (and statistical significance) compared to the pre-pandemic period.