The potential impact of COVID-19 on TB patients and services continues to generate significant attention. 1–4 Although several concerns have been raised, scientific evidence remains modest. As COVID-19 is a new disease, more time is needed to collect qualityassured scientific data. 3–5 A recent study on the global impact of COVID-19 on TB services has highlighted a reduction in TB disease and infection diagnosis in different countries and settings. 2 A Chinese study (based on 10 cases) estimated a prevalence of TB in COVID-19 patients of 0.5% to 4.5%. 6 A study from the Western Cape in South Africa showed that both current and previous TB were associated with COVID-19 deaths with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.70 and 1.51, respectively. 7 A modelling study from the Philippines showed that the risk of death in COVID-19 patients with TB was 2.17 times higher than in non-TB patients, and that the likelihood of recovery was 25% less with a longer time to recovery. 8

The GTN (Global Tuberculosis Network) has described the first cohort of patients (n= 49) with TB or previous TB and co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 from eight countries, including Belgium; Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul State); France; Italy; Russia (Moscow Region); Singapore; Spain; and Switzerland (Vaud Canton). 9 This showed that COVID-19 is usually diagnosed after previous TB (n= 26, 53.0%), although 14 patients had COVID-19 diagnosed before TB (n= 14, 28.5%), and 9 (18.3%) within the same week; 42 (85.7%) patients were under treatment for active TB, while 7 (14.3%) were suffering from post-treatment TB sequelae. 9 Combining the data from this cohort …