TB infection / disease normally occurs over a long time period and perhaps longer person-to-person exposure, whereas COVID-19 can transmit from short periods of exposure and develops symptoms usually within about five days,” he explained to Reuters via email.
“Indeed, COVID-19 doesn’t have a ‘latent infection’ phase like TB”, he added, with the caveat that TB can sometimes be transmitted from minimal exposure, “so this is not a water-tight rule”.
On top of this, the post on social media does not consider that differences in the geographical distribution of the two diseases influences where preventative measures are enforced.
For instance, it would be unlikely that a widescale lockdown for tuberculosis would be implemented in the United States. In 2019, the country provisionally recorded 8,920 cases of TB, out of 10 million globally (here).
That compares with more 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. so far, with more than 168,000 deaths (here).
Furthermore, unlike COVID-19, which threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems if widespread lockdowns were not implemented, there does not seem to be evidence that this would have happened because of TB.
Globally, there are areas of the world where TB remains a threat. In 2018, eight countries including India, China and Indonesia accounted for two thirds of new TB cases (here).
In areas where tuberculosis is prevаlent, Wingfield said that measures like mask-wearing and social distancing can be used to help reduce the spread of the disease.
There is also a vaccination that reduces the likelihood of children contracting severe TB symptoms, although it doesn't protect adults (tinyurl.com/y6drzzka).
In some cases, workplaces or schools can be temporarily shut down while dealing with an outbreak, but Wingfield explained that “this is more likely to happen in high-income settings that have the resources to do this as opposed to low-income settings where TB is more prevаlent.”
One issue with lockdown measures that are implemented nationally, Wingfield notes, is the concern that they will cause people to lose income and have reduced funds to buy nutritional food.
Undernutrition increases the risk of TB, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) causes around one quarter of all new TB cases globally (here).
Ultimately though, the post points to a lack of global awareness about TB which Wingfield alleged is due to the majority of TB cases being among poorer people living in low- and middle-income countries.
“Often, such communities have limited agency or advocacy to raise the disease up the national and international policy agenda,” he said.
“If, like COVID-19, TB affected people in such numbers in high-income settings then it is highly likely people would be more aware and, to be frank, more would be done to address it”.
https://br.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck...n-idUSKCN25F16X
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