24 Covid-19 patients in Karnataka contract Tuberculosis after recovery

In a double whammy, the health department has found 309 Tuberculosis (TB) patients testing positive for Covid-19 among 40,159 TB patients this year.

More districts are reporting TB in patients who have recovered Covid. So far, 24 post-Covid patients in three districts have contracted TB.

Now, the government is undertaking a 15-day house-to-house survey from August 16 to August 31 across Karnataka to screen patients for TB who had recovered from Covid between January and June this year.

Mysuru, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar districts have already found 12, seven and five such cases respectively.

Koppal district has found six suspected TB patients when 4,000 recovered Covid patients were screened.

Also Read | Covid-19 can increase susceptibility to developing active tuberculosis: Health Ministry

State joint director (TB) Ramesh Chandra Reddy told DH, “Both Covid and TB have the same symptoms. The latter may have been missed. In Covid patients, there is damage to the lungs which leads to immunosuppression that increases the chances of getting TB. Covid patients who have gotten steroids or are diabetic have higher chances of getting TB.”

The symptoms to watch out for are unresolved cough for three months, constant fever for two weeks, spitting cough, and sudden fall in body weight. A chest X-ray is recommended for immediate diagnosis.

Reddy said the department could not test hospitalised Covid patients in the second wave for TB because sputum samples with high infectivity could not be collected from admitted patients. Now, it is undertaking a survey after a study conducted in Kerala showed 335 patients with both TB and Covid from January 1 to June 30, out of whom 33 had died (fatality rate 9.8 per cent), he added.

Narayana Health pulmonogist Dr Murali Mohan said, “Covid itself brings the immunity down, with or without steroids. In India, people mostly get primary TB in childhood and as an adult, if immunity drops for any reason, due to Covid or sugar levels going up post-Covid, TB gets ‘reactivated’. Neglect of early symptoms and allowing them to get advanced is also a factor. Steroids also lead to higher sugar levels. Also, we did not use as many steroids in the first wave.”

However, Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HoD, Pulmonology, and lung transplant physician at Manipal Hospital, differed with the steroid theory and attributed TB to the ‘immunological havoc’ that Covid played in the body. "Delayed access to non-Covid healthcare, Delta variant compromising immunity, profound T-cell depression due to Covid in the second wave and malnutrition are the likely factors causing TB," he said.