Tuberculosis Risk is High Among COVID Patients, Warns the Health Ministry

Tuberculosis is a serious bacterial infection that affects the lungs. It can occur as a possible post-covid complication, warns the health ministry in its recent statement.

Tuberculosis can occur post-covid complication, says the Health Ministry. It is a serious bacterial infection that affects the lungs. It spreads through respiratory droplets released during coughing and sneezing.

People affected with COVID-19 and tuberculosis show almost similar symptoms like cough, fever, and difficulty in breathing. As the disease is opportunistic, just like mucormycosis, the government body warned about the possible risk of tuberculosis among patients who had been affected by COVID-19.

Post-COVID Syndrome
Post-COVID complications are the conditions that develop weeks after recovering from COVID-19

‘Tuberculosis bacteria can start to multiply when the individual’s immunity is compromised for any reason. Thus, people with active COVID infection or those who recovered from COVID-19 must be tested for TB, and prompt care should be taken.’

Post-COVID complications are the health issues faced by people even after the clinical recovery from COVID-19. Health issues including pneumonia, brain fog, and neurological disorders are found to be some of the post-covid complications as of now.

Back in August 2020, a sudden spike in TB cases was reported among individuals who had COVID-19, but MOHFW said that it is not yet confirmed that those cases were due to COVID-19. Yet states and Union Territories were asked to keep monitoring the cases of TB and COVID-19. Apart from this, multiple advisories have been suggested to reiterate the need for bi-directional screening of TB-COVID and TB-ILI/SARI.

Parallelly, experts detected about a 25% decrease in TB cases due to the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions.

Test your Knowledge on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coronavirus is a large positive-strand RNA virus that is surrounded by a protein envelope. The virus obtains its name from the S protein spikes on its surface, which resemble a crown. The overall pattern of increasing coronavirus cases is shown to spike up with the “second wave” of COVID-19.

With spiking effects of the second wave of coronavirus, the best way to keep it at bay is to follow COVID-appropriate safety practices like wearing a mask, regularly cleaning your hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue along with physical distancing (6 feet about 2 arm's length), that may help evade the severity of COVID-19 infection.

In the recent statement, the ministry added, “TB bacilli can be present in humans in a dormant state and has the potential to start multiplying when the individual’s immunity is compromised for any reason. The same is applicable in post-Covid scenarios, when an individual may develop decreased immunity due to the virus itself or due to the treatment, especially immune-suppressants like steroids,” emphasizing the need to take necessary precautions to avoid this deadly combination of respiratory illnesses.

Source-Medindia

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