A new report from a tuberculosis (TB) research and advocacy group suggests the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns could have a devastating impact on the global TB burden in the coming years.According to a modeling analysis commissioned by the Stop TB Partnership, a lockdown that disrupts TB diagnosis, treatment, and prevention services for 2 months, followed by the 2 months it would take to get normal TB services back up and running, could result in a rapidly growing pool of undetected and untreated TB patients.
Over the next 5 years, that could produce an additional 1.8 million TB cases and 342,000 deaths globally.Under a worst-case scenario of a 3-month lockdown and 10-month restoration period, global cases would rise by 6.8