For several months now, maintaining tuberculosis services has been a particular challenge in most of the countries worst affected, particularly in West Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on patient attendance at tuberculosis treatment facilities. This has resulted, among other things, in a significant drop in the effectiveness of screening activities in several countries.
To help countries bridge the gap, WHO/TDR and its partners launched a call for projects to fund operational research studies on tuberculosis in West and Central Africa. This support has enabled several countries to test new approaches to TB screening. One of these approaches was presented on 03 June 2021 at one of the regular meetings of national TB programme coordinators from network member countries. This approach involves a more or less systematic search for TB cases in patients investigated for infection with COVID-19.
Two countries in the region have made significant progress in evaluating two variants of this approach. These were Guinea, which tested for tuberculosis in patients with a negative or cured status for COVID-19, but who still had symptoms, and Niger, which systematically tested for tuberculosis in patients suspected of having COVID-19. During the meeting, each country presented the results obtained, as well as the advantages and difficulties of the method applied in their country. This information will be very useful for other countries wishing to replicate this approach.