Tuberculosis — Reaping benefits from COVID-19 in Portugal

Portugal has managed the first national wave of COVID-19 but now it is now time to turn to other priorities in our Health System. Tuberculosis is our old enemy, while SARS-CoV-2 is the new kid on the block. The slow onset of tuberculosis matches its slow mobilization of resources, in contrast to the speed of SARS-CoV-2. While we are living through a pandemic that, so far, has claimed over 7 lives worldwide, it is easy to forget that TB claims more than 1.2 million lives every year. There is international concern regarding the cycle of lockdown and slow restoration of tuberculosis services, predicting an additional 1.4 million TB deaths between 2020 and 2025, due to delayed diagnosis, interruption or delay of treatment. What can we expect in the next months for tuberculosis incidence in Portugal? The country has been fighting a long war to maintain the incidence under the 20 cases/100.000 inhabitants mark and has a difficult challenge ahead to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3.3 before 2030. It has a unique profile in Western Europe, with an elevated number of cases in natives and a small proportion of cases in foreign-born individuals and high spatial heterogeneity transmission associated with housing