Serviço de Pneumologia, Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal.
EPIUnit - Instituto de Saúde Pública, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal; Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional (ITR), Porto, Portugal.
Pulmonology. 2022 May-Jun;28(3):210-219. doi: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2022.01.015. Epub 2022 Feb 7.
In Portugal, Outpatient Tuberculosis Centres (OTBC) are responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, screening and prevention of tuberculosis (TB), and only severe or resistant cases are hospitalized.
To understand how infection control norms and standards were applied and how these centres responded during the pandemic.
We sent an electronic questionnaire to all coordinators of OTBC. The questionnaire included questions on infection control during the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluation of the functioning of the OTBC in two periods: during the 1 National State of Emergency and after 1 year.
Thirty-two responses were obtained (52.5%). The infection control norms were globally applied; diagnosis, treatment, and prevention were kept, and contact screening was only affected during the 1 State of Emergency. However, half of the respondents (53.1%) believed that there were diagnostic delays during the 1 State of Emergency, rising to 68.8% after 1 year. Only 31.3% performed Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) in all patients during the 1 State of Emergency, and 59.4% after 1 year. Half the inquiries expected an increase in TB incidence in the near future.
The pandemic affected OTBC functioning, although the services were kept open; diagnostic delay and DOT appliance were the most affected.
在葡萄牙，门诊结核病中心（OTBC）负责结核病（TB）的诊断、治疗、筛查和预防，只有严重或耐药病例才住院。
了解感染控制规范和标准的应用情况以及这些中心在大流行期间的应对情况。
我们向所有 OTBC 协调员发送了一份电子问卷。问卷包括在 COVID-19 大流行期间感染控制以及在两个时期评估 OTBC 运作的问题：在第 1 次国家紧急状态期间和 1 年后。
共收到 32 份回复（52.5%）。感染控制规范得到了全面应用；诊断、治疗和预防得到了维持，仅在第 1 次紧急状态期间受到接触筛查的影响。然而，一半的受访者（53.1%）认为在第 1 次紧急状态期间存在诊断延迟，1 年后上升至 68.8%。只有 31.3%的受访者在第 1 次紧急状态期间对所有患者进行直接观察治疗（DOT），而 1 年后则为 59.4%。一半的查询预计在不久的将来结核病发病率会增加。
大流行影响了 OTBC 的运作，尽管服务仍保持开放；诊断延迟和 DOT 应用受到的影响最大。
