Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and COVID-19: A Scoping Review on a New Threat to Antimicrobial Resistance.
Beibilene Perlato Melo da Silva, Anelisa Soares de Almeida, Matheus Gabriel de Melo Sérgio and 3 others
PMID 38055430WHAT IT FOUND
The evidence linking drug-resistant TB and COVID-19 was mostly letters and reviews, not trials.
It maps delayed diagnosis, disrupted treatment, and possible worse outcomes, but does not show what works.
Key findings
01Of the 35 selected articles, 13 were letters to the editor or comments and 11 were literature reviews.
02The included studies were grouped into four thematic areas, with 19 addressing clinical and epidemiological aspects of the COVID-19 and DR-TB interaction and 12 addressing management of physical and team resources.
03The review found only 3 case reports, 3 descriptive observational studies, 2 retrospective cohort studies, and 1 ecological study among the selected articles.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, not a trial or systematic review of effectiveness, so it maps evidence rather than showing whether an intervention works. Most included studies were letters to the editor, comments, or reviews, and the review did not assess their methodological quality. The search was limited to open-access sources and publications up to March 2022, so newer or paywalled work may be missing. Many studies did not specify country of origin, and included study designs were heterogeneous, which makes the evidence hard to combine.
Declared interests
The text reports that one author received a FAPESP scientific initiation scholarship and does not list other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the mapped themes as proof that any TB or COVID-19 intervention works. Most included studies were letters or reviews, and the review did not assess study quality or test treatments.