Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has made it mandatory for all Covid as well as non-Covid government and private hospitals to test patients of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (
SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) for tuberculosis (
TB) along with novel coronavirus.
The motive is to detect TB cases that are probably going unreported during the
Covid-19 pandemic. Also, some Covid-19 positive as well as negative patients were also detected with TB.
NMC TB Officer Dr Shilpa Jichkar told TOI, “The Central TB Division has issued guidelines to test SARI and ILI patients also for TB. Less number of TB cases have been notified across the country since beginning of Covid-19 due to various reasons. If they go unreported and remain untreated, TB patients can spread the disease,” she said.
In Nagpur, the officer said that around 7,700 TB cases were reported last year but the number has reduced by around 3,000 this year. As per NMC’s data, city is having 4,600 active TB cases.
Earlier, patients used to be screened for TB if they had cough, fever and weight loss for two weeks or more. “Latest guidelines have made TB test mandatory for SARI and ILI patients having cough, fever and other symptoms for over six days. Hospitals have been provided material for collection of sputum samples,” said Jichkar.
The officer further said that samples of all SARI and ILI patients hospitalized will be tested. “Samples of suspected Covid-19 patients will be tested at the laboratory in GMCH. Also, they will be screened by taking X-ray and tested through cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT),” she said.
All Covid-19 positive patients will also be screened for TB. “A study at GMCH, IGGMCH and Sadar hospital revealed TB notification rate at 0.37%-4.47% in Covid-19 positive patients,” she said.
NMC chief medical officer Dr Narendra Bahirwar has urged patients who have tested negative for Covid-19 but having symptoms of cough, fever etc to get tested for TB. “Also, Covid-19 recovered patients but having cough etc for long time should also test for TB. Testing facility is available free of cost at GMCH, IGGMCH and NMC’s Sadar Hospital,” he said.
Following guidelines issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) earlier this month, the NMC collected data from Covid-19 department regarding patients who tested Covid-19 negative but had symptoms of TB. After screening 221 such patients, 11 were detected with TB.
Dr Jichkar said, “There are various reasons behind decline in TB patients. Symptoms of Covid-19 and TB are similar. All were tested for Covid-19 but not for TB. Also, patients with TB symptoms might not go for screening due to fear of Covid-19.”