COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on tuberculosis treatment actions in primary care

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis became the leading cause of death from infectious diseases in the world in 2015, when it overtook HIV infection. On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was defined as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, due to its spread, with outbreaks of the disease in several countries and regions of the world. With the advent of the pandemic, there has been a great impact on the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Objective: To analyze the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tuberculosis control actions within the scope of Primary Health Care in the city of São Paulo. Method: The study is cross-sectional and will be carried out in primary care services located in the city of São Paulo. It will be developed based on primary and secondary data considering the social, demographic and economic context, epidemiological and operational indicators, the characteristics of the health units (type of unit, human resources, organization and work process), the characteristics of the units for attention to tuberculosis and disease treatment actions during the Covid-19 pandemic, in each scenario, where tuberculosis is a significant and priority problem.