Expert Warns of Surge in Patients Seeking Delayed Treatment for Tuberculosis - Caixin Global

-

While the world is still wrestling with the Covid-19 pandemic, a Chinese public health expert has warned of a spike in cases of the world’s most deadly infectious disease, tuberculosis (TB), as patients start seeking medical help again.

Huang Fei, a researcher with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday at a seminar hosted by a Peking University research center that the number of registrations of TB patients in China may suddenly increase in the short term.

Many TB patients have been avoiding hospitals as medical resources were diverted for Covid-19 treatments or due to fears about contracting the coronavirus.

According to Huang, the number of visits to TB clinics in the first three months of 2020 plunged by 260,000 from a peak of 800,000 in the previous quarter.

He said there could be several reasons for the decline, including lockdowns and travel restrictions, TB medical resources being redeployed to treat Covid-19, and fewer patients seeing doctors for fear of catching the new disease.

To battle the coronavirus, hospitals designated for TB cases, such as Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, were being used instead to treat Covid-19 patients, and the priority for health care workers was to fight and prevent the new infectious disease, Huang said.

He also said concerns over TB family clusters are rising, exceeding its spread in public places amid the coronavirus-led quarantine.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that in 2018 about 1.5 million people died and 10 million fell ill with TB – a disease caused by bacteria that most commonly affects the lungs. China has the world’s second highest number of TB cases and about 37,000 died in 2018.

The world’s most deadly infectious disease has not taken a break amid the coronavirus pandemic despite social distancing measures such as masking. Experts worry the coronavirus-led disruption of detection and treatment of other infectious diseases, including TB, could make the situation even worse this year.

Citing a recent study, Madhukar Pai, director of the McGill International TB Centre at McGill University in Canada said there will be 6.3 million new cases of TB and 1.4 million more deaths globally from 2020 to 2025, setting back the battle against the disease by five to eight years.

He also estimated there could be an additional 23,000 deaths from TB in China over the next five years under the worst-case scenario.

Pai said Covid-19 had overwhelmed public health systems in many countries, including China, leaving millions of TB sufferers with little to no access to crucial drugs, doctors and follow-up treatments.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on TB patients could also lead to drugs being out of stock in many countries over the coming months, with Pai warning the prolonged lockdown in India — the world’s major producer of TB treatment drugs — had disrupted the global supply chain.

He said production in India had yet to resume because of the lockdown and travel restrictions make it harder to transport pharmaceutical ingredients and raw materials from China to India.

Pai was also concerned about funding shortages for the research and treatment of TB as the Covid-19 pandemic had left many countries in economic difficulty. At the same time, governments, such as the United States, have withdrawn or cut funding to the WHO.

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

You've accessed an article available only to subscribers

VIEW OPTIONS



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rash behind ear: Causes, other symptoms, and treatment - Medical News Today

-
Image
A rash behind the ear may occur due to a variety of different medical conditions. Certain viral infections and autoimmune diseases may cause a rash behind the ear in both children and adults. While some causes, such as contact dermatitis, are not concerning, other causes, including rubella, may be more serious. In this article, we look at some of the causes of a rash behind the ear, as well as the other symptoms that they may produce and how to treat them. Contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction to a particular substance. If an allergy-inducing substance comes into contact with the skin behind the ear, a rash can form. Allergens that may cause contact dermatitis behind the ears include: shampoos soaps other hair care products For example, hair dye products contain an ingredient called paraphenylenediamine (PPD), which is a common contact allergen. Symptoms Contact dermatitis causes itchiness, dryness, and flaking of the skin that came into contact with the allergen. Diagnosis A doc
Read more

Robert Zakar gives back to community

-
Image
tb in pregnancy :: Article Creator TB Fight Goes To Vulnerable Communities Tuberculosis (TB) is still the most deadly infectious disease in the world, killing over 4 000 people every day, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). As such, in compliance with the latest WHO Latent TB Infection (LTBI) guidelines, in 2020, the Ministry of Health rolled out short-course rifapentine-based TB Preventive Therapies (TPT) nationally as one way of providing equitable access to TB preventive therapy to all those eligible. Latent TB infection means that not everyone who is infected with TB immediately develops the TB disease. Some people go on to have a dormant form of TB that can be reactivated over time or when the immune system is suppressed. So treating LTBI will prevent the person from getting active TB. However, most people in rural areas are still not aware of how they can access the treatment. To complement government's efforts in respo
Read more

Download Communicable Disease School Nurse Guidance

-
Image
toenail bacterial infection :: Article Creator How Do I Get Rid Of Toenail Fungus? Q: It looks like I have fungus beneath my toenail, but how can I be sure? Does toenail fungus go away on its own? Yellowing, brittle and unusual-looking toenails can be a sign that a fungal nail infection, called onychomycosis, has taken root. Experts say these infections don't go away on their own and can easily spread from person to person without treatment. "Fungus tends to be greedy," said Dr. Boni Elewski, chair of the department of dermatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. If you pick it up from close contact with someone who is infected or by walking barefoot in a locker room, for instance, it can then crawl under your toenail and spread into the nail itself, she said. Wearing moist, sweaty shoes can encourage the fungus to grow. Toenail fungus affects an estimated one in 10 people worldwide, and becomes more common with age — afflicti
Read more