COVID-19 and tuberculosis coinfection: A case–control study from a tertiary care center in South India
Druti Hazra, Nayana Siddalingaiah, Nitin Gupta, Kiran Chawla, A Ravindra Prabhu, Divya Datta, Nisha Khader, Shilna Muttickal Swaminathan- General Materials Science
Context:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and tuberculosis (TB), are presently the major infectious diseases imposing a consequential public health threat and their coinfection has a significant impact on the outcome.
Aims:
To evaluate the clinical features and outcomes of COVID-19-TB coinfected cases compared to solely COVID-19-infected cases.
Settings and Design:
A retrospective observational study was conducted between August 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022, at a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and Methods:
In this case-control study, an equal number of gender-age-matched COVID-19 and TB coinfected patients and COVID-19 cases without TB were included using simple random sampling.
Statistical Analysis Used:
The data was analyzed using SPSS v 26. Categorical variables were compared using the Chi-square test, and an independent
Results:
A total of 27 patients were included in each group. Upper lobe involvement (44%) and pleural effusion (22%) were significantly more common in TB-COVID-19 cases when compared to the control group (7% and 4%, respectively;
Conclusions:
Chest radiology and a higher level of certain biomarkers like C-reactive protein and ferritin can help to suspect TB in COVID-19 patients and vice-versa.