Background: Tuberculosis is an endemic disease in various regions of the world like South East Asia. The State of Kuwait compromises a diverse population of non-Kuwaiti expatriates mostly from India, Bangladesh, and Egypt. The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) in Kuwait is a referral center for all diagnosed cases that have tuberculosis either active or latent.
Objective: To study the impact of covid 19 disease on tuberculosis during its pandemic within the period from March 2020 to March 2021 and to compare it with the previous 1 year from January 2019 to February 2020.
Patients and Methods: Data were collected from our system for comparison of the rate of diagnosis and treatment each month over two years from January 2019 to the end of 2020, which was done during the period of lockdown (total curfew).
Results: Before COVID-19 disease, the annual number of active TB was 534, which decreased during the pandemic without reaching the critical difference; mean±SD= 423.3±103.4, P> 0.05. On the other hand, the annual number of latent TB cases was 438 before the pandemic, which showed a significant increase with a mean of ±SD= 624.5±154.5, P=0.007. Additionally, Latent TB cases in the COVID-19 era showed significantly higher reports than active TB, P < 0.05. Moreover, we found a considerable double number of multi-drug resistance pulmonary tuberculosis and one case suspected extensive drug resistance.
Conclusion: Covid 19 pandemic had a significant impact on tuberculosis care as regards diagnosis and treatment as well as follow-up.