COVID-19 pandemic has minimal impact on the performance of the Vietnam National TB program in 2020
Vietnam is a high-burden TB country and ranks among the top 30 high-burden countries for multidrug-resistant/rifampin-resistant (MDR/RR) TB. However, by the end of 2020, Vietnam had one of the lowest rates of reported COVID-19 cases in the region.
In 2021, we conducted an evaluation of the effects of the coronavirus disease pandemic on diagnosis of and treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in Vietnam. We obtained quarterly notifications for TB and multidrug-resistant/rifampin-resistant (MDR/RR) TB from 2015–2020 and evaluated changes in monthly TB case notifications. We used an interrupted time series to assess the change in notifications and treatment outcomes.
Overall, TB case notifications were 8% lower in 2020 than in 2019; MDR/RR TB notifications were 1% lower. TB case notifications decreased by 364 (95% CI −1,236 to 508) notifications per quarter and MDR/RR TB by 1 (95% CI −129 to 132) notification per quarter. The proportion of successful TB treatment outcomes decreased by 0.1% per quarter (95% CI −1.1% to 0.8%) in 2020 compared with previous years. Our study suggests that Vietnam was able to maintain its TB response in 2020, despite the pandemic.
