World Health Organization (WHO) reported the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease for the first time on the 31st December 2019 and went on to declare it a pandemic on the 11^th of March, 2020 [1]. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been demonstrated to cause mild to severe respiratory disease that could be fatal in the elderly and persons with co-morbidities [2]. As of October 12^th, 2020, the weekly updates by WHO showed 37,109,851 persons had been infected globally with 1,070,355 deaths and an estimated case fatality rate of 2.9% globally [1]. The total number of cases reported in Nigeria in the same period was 60,430 with 1115 deaths recorded giving a case fatality rate of 1.8% for the country [3]. The symptoms of the disease include fever, respiratory distress, fatigue, dry cough, and in some cases, loss of smell and taste [1]. A high number of people who get infected with COVID-19 remain asymptomatic [1]. These asymptomatic persons are more likely to be the source of transmission of the disease in the community if they do not follow protocols for the prevention of COVID-19 [1] which has been characterized by high morbidity and mortality rates [4].

Similarly, tuberculosis is also an infectious disease which also primarily causes respiratory distress and is caused by mycobacterial species [5]. About one-third of the world population is infected with latent tuberculosis globally and can be on this latent phase all their lives without developing active TB disease except they become immunocompromised [5]. However, a significant percentage of the infected persons go on to develop active TB disease and have the potential to spread the disease from one person to another [6]. People with HIV or other immunosuppressive conditions are more likely to develop active TB from a latent state compared to those who are immunocompetent [6]. The natural history of TB is such that almost all who develop TB disease will eventually die of the disease if appropriate treatment is not instituted [7]. This contrasts with the natural history of COVID-19 where the majority of the persons who develop the disease recover spontaneously [8].

Tuberculosis has been identified as the leading infectious disease killer in the world [9]. According to the 2019 Global TB report, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with TB in 2018 with 7 million notified, leaving a gap of about 3 million persons with TB disease who are yet to be identified and placed on treatment. About 1.451 million persons, 251,000 of which were people living with HIV, were said to have died in the same year [9]. Nigeria is among the 10 high burden countries that contributed 80% of the 3million gap in case notification accounting for 8% of the unidentified cases with an estimated 300,000 unidentified TB cases in the country [9].

Tuberculosis continues to have a devastating impact on the health systems and economies of several countries including Nigeria. The Nigerian health system was already overburdened before the COVID-19 outbreak with deficient infrastructure and human resource capacity to deal with already existing diseases [10]. This simply implies that basic preventive measures like routine screening for common infectious diseases could play a significant role in the control of both COVID-19 and TB. Screening for both diseases requires the use of a standardized symptoms checklist as recommended by the Federal Ministry of Health.

Nigeria has been making efforts to institutionalize routine TB screening in all health facilities in the country. In 2018, the National Council of Health made it mandatory that all health facilities in the country must begin to routinely screen all their clients for TB as a key strategy for eliminating the disease by 2035 as targeted in sustainable development goal 3 [11]. Official memos were sent out to Commissioners of Health in the 36 states of the Federation by the Minister of Health mandating them to hold heads of facilities responsible for implementing this policy [12].

To screen a client for tuberculosis, a healthcare worker is expected to ask a client questions relating to a standardized symptoms checklist that seeks to know whether the client has had a cough of two weeks or more, weight loss, drenching night sweats, loss of appetite and persistent low-grade fever [13] [14]. Any client coughing for 2 weeks or more with or without any of the other symptoms is considered a “presumptive TB case” and is referred for sputum analysis or X-ray [13]. To screen for COVID-19, a health worker is expected to ask questions related to the occurrence of the following symptoms: fever, respiratory distress, fatigue, dry cough, loss of smell, and taste [1]. Symptomatic clients are then referred for testing. Given the above, this study seeks to evaluate the extent of routine facility-based TB screening practiced by Nigerian health workers and whether the practice has any relationship with the practice of routine COVID-19 screening in the facilities following the outbreak of the pandemic.

The study employed quantitative methodology and data was collected by means of an online-cross-sectional survey.

The respondents showed a good knowledge of COVID-19 and a high level of use of preventive measures against it. On the contrary, a poor attitude towards the disease and to work was adopted by most of the respondents during the pandemic. Studies in Pakistan [17] and Vietnam [18] reported similar findings of a high level of knowledge among HCW. This agrees with our findings in Nigeria. This could be due to the wide publicity on COVID-19 globally with tailored information for different population groups’ especially healthcare workers. A study by Bhagavathula et al. [19], however, reported a low level of knowledge of COVID-19 among HCWs in various geographic regions worldwide. This may most likely be due to the fact the study was conducted in early March 2020 when there was little awareness of COVID-19 and most countries were yet to commence a lockdown.

The difference in practice between staff at Primary Health Care (PHC) level and those at the secondary and tertiary levels could be explained by the fact that most infectious disease programs are targeted at health workers at that level leaving those at the higher levels with minimal information on the possible assumption that they ought to know. The majority of sensitization and training on the control of infectious diseases like Tuberculosis usually involves people at the PHC level. This raises their awareness levels and indices of suspicion. The higher likelihood of doctors and nurses doing more routine screening for COVID-19 than tuberculosis may be related to the level of information available to them following the intense awareness creation around the pandemic, and the acuteness of COVID-19 compared to TB which is a chronic disease and a “Silent Killer”. The fear of contracting COVID-19 from clients could also be a motivation for routine screening.

The observed low level of routine screening for tuberculosis among health workers generally may be related to a lack of knowledge of the effectiveness of early diagnosis and treatment in limiting the spread of the disease [20]. It may also be because of the attitude of the health workers who believe TB screening should be left to the designated officers at the TB treatment units in their facilities. The inadequate screening for COVID-19 could be attributed to the unavailability of proximal testing equipment and centres as is currently seen in the country. For these two diseases, the fear of being stigmatized, even at the facility level, may prompt clients to decline providing answers to questions related to the diseases thereby making screening difficult for health workers [21].

Most of the respondents who regularly conducted routine TB screening before the outbreak of the pandemic also showed a higher tendency to routinely screen for COVID-19 as reflected in the results. This will most likely be attributed to the fact that the healthcare workers were already primed to routinely screen for the presence of signs and symptoms of common infectious diseases.

This study was limited to an online survey because of the COVID-19 lockdowns which made it impossible for the researchers to move to certain rural/semi-urban settings to include participants from such areas. As a result, the study reflects responses from a socio-economic class of health care workers who can access internet facilities and had smartphones/laptops. Also, the validity of answers, which is a general problem of online surveys, may be difficult to ascertain. In our analysis, we did not conduct advanced statistical analysis such as a multilevel analysis to ascertain if working at a certain level of a health facility or state had any effect on our findings. But this was compensated for by the different comparative analyses which gave good estimates for the different groups of healthcare workers and health facilities.

From our survey, there is a good knowledge of COVID-19 and its preventive measures among the surveyed health care workers. We noted that routine screening for TB and COVID-19 is not being practised in most health facilities in Nigeria and that the practice of routine screening for one infectious disease could lead to a health worker routinely screening for other infectious diseases as seen in the high percentage of healthcare workers who screened for both TB and COVID-19. Despite being made a policy and pronounced as the standard of care, routine TB screening is yet to be institutionalized in the Nigerian health system after nearly 3 years. There is the need to fully engage all cadres of healthcare workers to inform and educate them on the relevance of routine screening of clients in the control of infectious diseases. Adequate infrastructure and diagnostic equipment, including well-designed hospital environments, should be made available as part of measures to encourage routine screening of clients for infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis.

Dr. C. Okoro designed the study, produced the Microsoft word version of the questionnaire, participated in the extraction and collation of the google responses, and coordinated the research and statistical analyses. Dr. E. Onyenweaku co-designed the study, created the online questionnaire, participated in the extraction and collation of the google responses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Dr. E. Okwudire participated in data extraction and collation of google responses, data analysis and made contributions to the research article. Dr. M. Kalu participated in data extraction and made contributions to the research article. Dr. O. Kusimo and Dr. V. Williams made contributions to the research article, gave inputs on the general structure and content. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The authors declare no competing interests exist.

Okoro, C.A., Onyenweaku, E.O., Okwudire, E.G., Kalu, M.K., Kusimo, O.C. and Williams, V. (2021) Tuberculosis and COVID-19 Screening at Health Facilities: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Health Care Workers in Nigeria during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Tuberculosis Research, 9, 18-30. https://doi.org/10.4236/jtr.2021.91002

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