Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on TB and HIV Services in Pakistan

Abstract

Dear Editor We read with interest the article recently published entitle ‘Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis laboratory services in Europe.” by and here we would like to explore the effect of COVID19 pandemic on TB and HIV services in Pakistan. As corona virus spreads rapidly in the world, many gaps in the well-established health care system have been exposed. As a result, many more issues have been aroused for the already vulnerable community like patients with tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Like all the countries of the world, Pakistan is also hit hard by the pandemic with 1,572,778 confirmed cases including 30,619 deaths. However, this is not the first time that Pakistan has experienced national health emergency situations. Before this, secondary infection with tuberculosis was the prime concern for HIV/AIDS control measures in Pakistan (To be continued).

Keywords

• covid-19
• tb
• hiv services