World TB Day: COVID-19 & TB

COVID-19 and SARS-Cov-2 update from Immunopaedia.org.za. 

As of today, there are almost 400000 COVID-19 cases recorded globally. With the increase in cases in the global south, many are wondering whether infectious diseases increase the risk of having severe COVID-19? Thus far, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases have been highlighted as risk factors for progressing to severe illness (Fang et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2020). Recently, published pre-print by Chen et al., 2020, suggests that M.tb infection (Latent Tuberculosis) and TB disease are also potential risk factors for COVID-19 disease and may predispose individuals to severe disease. More studies are required to confirm this, as well as to determine which other infectious diseases increase your risk of having severe COVID-19. 

Also read “World TB Day: Together we fight TB and the Coronavirus”; COVID-19: Avoiding a ‘second tragedy’ for those with TB

Please watch the webinar (https://zoom.us/j/494523297), to know about COVID-19 and TB. (If this is not possible, we shall the link to video if it is released after the webinar

References:

• Chen et al., 2020. Active or latent tuberculosis increases susceptibility to COVID-19 and disease severity. medRxiv
• Fang et al., 2020. Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
• Zhou et al., 2020. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. The Lancet

SOURCE: www.immunopaedia.org.za/breaking-news/world-tb-day-covid-19-tb