The ancient Tuberculosis in the novel COVID-19 scenario

ABSTRACT

Abstract Recently, the world has coped with the challenge of the novel SARS-CoV-2 rapid spreading, causing COVID-19. This scenario has overburdened health systems, forced social isolation, and interrupted some services, changing the way how health assistance is provided. The management of chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis is a sensitive matter in times when the control strategies are at risk. In this sense, how could a high burden disease such as tuberculosis affect or be affected when combined with the COVID-19 pandemic? Patients with tuberculosis have a social background and lung impairment that represent risks in the pandemic scenario of another widely transmitted respiratory disease. Thus, even with several questions remaining unanswered, research and public policies should be addressed to control the effects of the current highly contagious COVID-19 without forgetting how it will affect the natural progression of patients suffering from tuberculosis.