Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis national reference laboratory services in the WHO European Region, March to November 2020.
File(s)Covid and Tb ref lab .pdf (261.21 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
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.
Date Issued
2021-06-17
Date Acceptance
2021-06-17
Citation
Eurosurveillance, 2021, 26 (24), pp.1-6
ISSN
1025-496X
Publisher
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
Start Page
1
End Page
6
Journal / Book Title
Eurosurveillance
Volume
26
Issue
24
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You
may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate
credit to the source, provide a link to the licence and indicate
if changes were made.
the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You
may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate
credit to the source, provide a link to the licence and indicate
if changes were made.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34142651
Subjects
PCR
SARS-CoV-2
diagnostics
COVID-19
COVID-19 Testing
Humans
Laboratories
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Tuberculosis
World Health Organization
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Sweden
Date Publish Online
2021-06-17