Assessing the Risk of Tuberculosis Relapse Development during the Period of Stabilization of the COVID-19 Epidemic

The objective: to evaluate risk factors for tuberculosis relapse development during stabilization of the COVID-19 situation. Subjects and Methods. 165 patients over 18 years of age were enrolled in the observational comparative study, those patients were followed up due to respiratory tuberculosis relapses in 2021-2023. Risk factors for early and late relapses that occurred during the pandemic (2021-2022) and post-pandemic (2023) periods were analyzed. They included age, gender, accommodation, social status, imprisonment, smoking, alcohol and substances abuse, comorbidities, clinical forms of tuberculosis, presence of cavities, bacterial excretion, and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Results. The data obtained confirmed the assumption that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to changes in social and medical-biological risk factors for tuberculosis relapse.