The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis detection in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the ten leading causes of death worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in outpatient and inpatient services due to the redistribution of medical personnel and increased laboratory research to combat COVID-19, which affected the solution of problems in phthisiology. The aim of the study - to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fight against TB in Tashkent, Uzbekistan during the period of strict quarantine from March to the end of 2020. The study included all adult patients with TB registered during March-December in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Data collected from 1775 patients, of which 1066 (60%) were men. According to the types of the current TB episodes patients were distributed as follows in the Table. According to the spectrum of drug sensitivity the TB patients were distributed as follows (Figure). During the period of strict quarantine from March to the end of 2020, compared to 2019, the number of identified TB patients in Tashkent city decreased by 22%.