The ongoing pandemic of novel coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus - 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has received worldwide attention by becoming a major global health threat. We encountered one case of SARS-CoV-2 and pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) coinfection which has not been frequently reported. A 76 year old female presented with acute respiratory symptoms superimposed on chronic symptoms, suggestive to have pneumonia. Oropharyngeal throat swab sample for SARS-CoV-2 infection was positive as detected by real-time reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Sputum smear staining was positive for acid fast bacilli. Clinicians should suspect coinfection with pulmonary TB while treating Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during ongoing pandemic as therapeutic strategies need to be determined accordingly to improve outcome and prevent transmission in community.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Singh et al. (2020) studied this question.