Northeastern Spotlight

Spring 2020 Volume 15 – Number 1

Reflections on Why TB Programs are Well-Positioned to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic

One of the most successful but paradoxically unheralded models of public health interventions has been contact investigation for tuberculosis. Following on the early success of what were then investigations of the contacts of individuals with sexually transmitted diseases, follow up of contacts of patients with TB and MDR-TB, invariably spread by respiratory droplets, led to identification and isolation of other active TB cases. Identification of contacts also allowed them to receive treatment for their TB infection, making possible preventive therapy to treat those infected before they could advance to full blown active and infectious TB. Contact investigation for TB was so successful that it was soon recognized as the backbone of all successful TB programs, and TB investigators, through their close personal relationship with their patients, were universally and appropriately recognized for their contribution to ongoing successes in infection control. Now the world is confronting a new, devastating threat, the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfamiliar tools such as lockdowns have been rapidly mobilized as control measures. But COVID-19 is spread by respiratory droplet infection, mainly to close contacts. Sound familiar? It certainly is, because this is the way TB is spread. So, it stands to reason (perhaps even intuitive) that the group who has the most experience on the planet with this modality are the people currently conducting TB contact investigations and treatment monitoring, that is, currently functioning TB Prevention and Care programs.

By Lee B. Reichman, MD, MPH
Founding Executive Director,
Global Tuberculosis Institute  

Image Source: CDC Image Library

Ode to COVID-19
I thought that I would never see
A virus that attacked so maliciously
That can be spread by the symptom-free
Through hugs and handshakes so
innocently;
That targets older folks like me
And crushes our lungs with guiltless glee.
All nature now with new life sings
But COVID has clipped our hopeful wings.
In April I’m always ebullient
But this virus has stymied joy’s ascent.
Though now we’re living on the precipice
I shall only yield to Nature’s kiss
Though anxious thoughts now fill my cart
They shall not descent from head to heart.

By Chris Hayden,
Former CDC and Global Tuberculosis Institute Staff (and Resident Poet)