COVID-19 and Tuberculosis Coinfection in a 51-Year-Old Taxi Driver in Mexico City

Abstract

Patient: Male, 51-year-old Final Diagnosis: COVID-19 Symptoms: Anosmia • dysgeusia • nocturnal diaphoresis Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Infectious Diseases Objective: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology Background: Coinfection with severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) has been reported, albeit rarely, in various parts of the world and has received attention from health systems because up to one-third of the world’s population has been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Mexico was not included in the first-ever report on a global cohort of patients with this coinfection. We report on a case of SARS-CoV-2/MBT coinfection in a 51-year-old taxi driver from Mexico City that underscores the importance of rapid and accurate laboratory testing, diagnosis, and treatment. Case Report: We present the case of a man in the sixth decade of life who was admitted to the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) with a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia, which was confirmed by nasopharyngeal exudate using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the identification of SARS-CoV-2. Findings from imaging studies suggested that the patient might be coinfected with MBT. That suspicion was confirmed with light microscopy of a sputum sample after Ziehl-Neelsen staining and when a Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF assay, an automated semi-quantitative RT-PCR assay, failed to detect rifampicin resistance. The patient was discharged from the hospital 10 days later. Conclusions: The present report underscores the importance of using validated molecular diagnostic tests to identify coin-fections in areas where there is a high prevalence of other causes of pneumonia, such as MBT, as a way to improve clinical outcomes in patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is imperative to control the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical community must not forget about the other pandemics to which populations are still prey, and tuberculosis is one of them. We must remain alert to any clinical subtleties so as to ensure timely and accurate diagnosis and stay one step ahead of COVID-19.

COVID-19 and Tuberculosis Coinfection: An Overview of Case Reports/Case Series and Meta-Analysis

“…Therefore, due to the high prevalence of both of these infectious diseases and the potential worse prognosis of coinfection, an intensive investigation of COVID-TB cases may be of great clinical significance (3,4,8). However, few studies have focused on COVID-TB cases to date, and most of these are case reports involving only one patient, thus precluding systematic summaries of the clinical characteristics of coinfection cases (7,9,10). In addition, it is unclear whether COVID-TB patients have a worse prognosis or are more likely to develop severe disease, thus necessitating further study.…”

COVID-19 and Pulmonary Tuberculosis Coinfection in a Moroccan Patient with Pulmonary Embolism: A Case Report and Literature Review

“…This coinfection was described in both genders and in all age groups including a three-month-old Gambian patient, with a slight predominance in males and migrants [ 4 ]. These cases were only reported in some countries like Italy [ 5 – 9 ], Singapore [ 10 , 11 ], India [ 12 – 15 ], China [ 16 – 19 ], Brazil [ 20 , 21 ], Turkey [ 22 , 23 ], Saudi Arabia [ 24 – 26 ], and Mexico [ 27 ].…”

Mathematical modeling and optimal control of SARS-CoV-2 and tuberculosis co-infection: a case study of Indonesia

“…For the model fitting, we used the approach in McCall ( 2005 ), which is based on the fmincon optimization toolbox in MATLAB. The fmincon’s optimization routine syntax: starts at x 0 (the initial guesses) and finds an optimum x to the function described in that fits the model to a given data set, subject to the nonlinear inequalities c ( x ) or equalities ceq ( x ) defined in nonlcon, and also subject to the linear inequalities and linear equalities , defined in A , b , Aeq , beq , respectively.…”