Leveraging tuberculosis programs for future pandemic preparedness: A retrospective look on COVID-19

Worldwide, COVID-19 has decimated healthcare systems and highlighted the pressing need to ensure resilience for future pandemics. Given the almost 30% likelihood of another respiratory disease similar to COVID-19 manifesting in the next 10 years, it is imperative to prioritize pandemic preparedness in the immediate future. To this end, tuberculosis (TB) and its management share many similarities to respiratory disease protection, offering an opportunity to dually strengthen TB programs and protect against future pandemics. Looking at data from the World Health Organization (WHO), Global Fund, Our World in Data, and domestic health ministries, it was hypothesized that countries that had better TB program strength going into the pandemic fared better with COVID-19 than those with poorer TB treatment. It was found that countries that recovered their TB program strength (as measured by TB treatment coverage percentages) to or above pre-pandemic levels fared better in terms of COVID-19 pandemic incidence and death. Case studies helped identify common factors across resilient TB platforms in dually successful COVID-19 and TB countries, including community trust, co-epidemic responses that were able to maintain continuity of care, sustained innovation, comprehensive communication across public and private sectors, and maintenance of donor support for TB programs through the pandemic.