BENGALURU: The month-long tuberculosis survey in Karnataka found 225 people affected by the disease. Of the 225, 151 cases are Covid-19 recovered patients and 74 are contacts of such patients. The one-time house-to-house survey by the Health and Family Welfare Department conducted between August 16 and September 11 screened 7,66,137 people. Bengaluru city (44), Ballari (25), Mysuru (14), Chitradurga (13), Kalaburagi (13), and Koppal (13) reported the highest number of TB cases. Vijayapura, Kolar, and Yadgir reported no TB cases.
“These were patients who contracted Covid between January and June this year. They have been put on TB treatment for six months continuously, with no room for defaulting. ASHA workers visit their homes if they miss their tablets. They have to give back the used tablet strips as and when they finish it,for us to keep a check. Also, Rs 500 is given to them for nutritional expenses as part of a Union Government scheme,” said Dr Ramesh Reddy, state joint director, TB.
“Steroids such as Tocilizumab given to Covid patients cause the immune system to become suppressed which activates the latent tuberculosis in a patient. It will be interesting to check how many of the TB patients detected in this survey had mild to moderate Covid and were on steroids,” said Dr Ravindra Mehta, Senior Consultant, and HoD, Pulmonology and Interventional Pulmonology, Apollo Speciality Hospital.