Open AccessImpact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis national reference laboratory services in the WHO European Region, March to November 2020
Author(s) -
Florian P. Maurer,
Natalia Shubladze,
Gulmira Kalmambetova,
Irina Felker,
Giorgi Kuchukhidze,
Francis Drobniewski,
Askar Yedilbayev,
Soudeh Ehsani
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
euro surveillance/eurosurveillance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.766
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1560-7917
pISSN - 1025-496X
DOI - 10.2807/1560-7917.es.2021.26.24.2100426
Subject(s) - covid-19 , pandemic , economic shortage , workload , tuberculosis , medicine , sample (material) , environmental health , geography , virology , outbreak , pathology , government (linguistics) , management , economics , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , linguistics , philosophy , chemistry , chromatography
We assessed the impact of COVID-19 on diagnostic services for tuberculosis (TB) by national reference laboratories in the WHO European Region. Of 35 laboratories, 30 reported declines in TB sample numbers, amounting up to > 50% of the pre-COVID-19 volumes. Sixteen reported reagent or consumable shortages. Nineteen reallocated ressources to SARS-CoV-2 testing, resulting in an overall increase in workload, largely without a concomitant increase in personnel (n = 14). This poses a risk to meeting the 2025 milestones of the End TB Strategy.