Health Ministry mandates COVID screening for TB patients; issues guidelines

Union Health Ministry on Thursday mandated COVID screening for all diagsed Tuberculosis (TB) patients and TB screening for all COVID-19 positive patients. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) issued a guidance te on bi-directional TB-COVID screening and screening of TB among influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases.

This decision comes as both TB and COVID-19 primarily attack lungs, and prevalence of TB among COVID-19 patients has been found to be 0.37 - 4.47 percent in different studies. A te furr re that  re has been an overall decline in TB tification by 26 percent during January to June 2020 as compared to previous year, due to COVID-19 pandemic.

"Tuberculosis is associated with a 2.1-fold increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. In dition, TB patients also tend to have co-morbid or living conditions (malnutrition, diabetes, smoking, HIV etc) that increase ir vulnerability," te said.

Based on result of bi-directional TB-COVID screening, manment should be undertaken as per MoHFW guidelines and treatment of TB should continue uninterrupted. Furr, all COVID-19 cases should be screened for TB symptoms using 4-symptom complex (Cough for over 2 weeks, persistent fever for over 2 weeks, significant weight loss, night sweats), history of contact with TB case, history of TB and those symptomatic should be offered chest X-ray and upfront Nuclear Acid Amplification Test (NAAT)- CBNAAT/TrueNat) for diagsis of TB.

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COVID in India 

Registering over 75,000 COVID-19 cases for first time in a span of 24 hours, India's virus tally sprinted past 33 lakh on Thursday, while number of recoveries crossed 25 lakh mark, according to Union Health Ministry data.  A record 75,760 infections were ded in a day taking total coronavirus caselo to 33,10,234. death toll climbed to 60,472 with 1,023 fatalities being reported in 24 hours,  data updated at 8 am showed.

With a total of 25,23,771 patients having recuperated so far, recovery rate was recorded at 76.24 per cent while COVID-19 case fatality rate has declined to 1.83 per cent. re are 7,25,991 active cases of coronavirus infection in country which comprises 21.93  per cent of total caselo, data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally h crossed 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23.  

(With inputs from ANI)

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