Screening for Severe Illness at Diagnosis Has the Potential to Prevent Early TB Deaths: Programmatic Experience From Karnataka, India.

ABSTRACT: Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated response, TB deaths increased for the first time in a decade. In any potentially fatal illness, an assessment of severity is essential. This is not systematically done for adults with TB, mostly due to a lack of policy and/or limited availability of diagnostic and clinical capacity. We developed a screening tool using simple and easily measurable indicators that can be used by paramedical TB program staff to quickly identify people with severe illness. During October-November 2020 in Karnataka, India, the paramedical program staff from 16 districts screened people with TB (aged ≥15 years) notified by public facilities for "high risk of severe illness," which was defined as the presence of any of the following indicators:

SUBMITTER: Shewade HD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9426979 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature