Experts warn of increased risk of tuberculosis in patients with covid

The high-risk group includes those patients who, after recovering from the coronavirus, have complications affecting lung function.

“After suffering COVID-19, many patients develop pronounced residual changes in the lungs in the form of fibrosis. It can be assumed that this category of patients has an increased risk of developing tuberculosis in the future”, - says the official guidelines for the treatment and prevention of the development of coronavirus.

According to experts, the increased risk of contracting tuberculosis in such patients exists both during and after the end of the disease.

To find out if a coronavirus patient with weakened lungs has become infected with tuberculosis, doctors recommend taking a blood test for the release of interferon gamma. Such an analysis can be done simultaneously with the test for antibodies to COVID-19, reports the Dozhd TV channel.

Earlier it became known that, based on data analysis, the Ministry of Health updated the recommendations for the treatment of COVID-19. The new version of the rules has changed the list of drugs recommended for the appointment of coronavirus patients. In particular, the drug azithromycin was excluded from the general list. Thus, the approved departmental list for the treatment of coronavirus has been reduced from six to five items.

It now includes the following drugs: Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Umifenovir and the recombinant IFN α. Moreover, only the last of them is recommended for the treatment of pregnant women infected with the virus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3.9 million people have fallen ill with coronavirus in Russia, including 16 thousand over the past day. The number of victims of the epidemic in the country exceeded 76 thousand people.