The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted TB elimination efforts globally. India witnessed about 60% decline in TB notifications during the lockdown period in 2020. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on TB services, an important strategy is bi-directional screening for both diseases, which manifest similar symptoms. Early detection and treatment are essential to improve patient outcomes. Hence, access to multiplex diagnostics platform like Truenat for testing Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-2 must increase.

IHF in partnership with Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) supplemented the reach and efficacy of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s (MCGM) COVID-19 response by enabling rapid on-site Truenat testing for those who tested negative on rapid antigen test but were symptomatic. The project also facilitated screening of TB amongst those who were suspected of COVID-19. This was as per the guidelines issued by MoHFW, GoI on screening for both COVID-19 and TB. The patients received their results in a couple of hours which is significantly less as compared to the time taken to report results using RT-PCR test, which is about 1 1/2 days. Those found positive for TB or COVID -19 were immediately linked to treatment services.

This well developed testing strategy combined with accurate point of care solution proved to be very successful in primary health channels across low resource settings. The results from this project are being discussed with MCGM with the aim to scale up the intervention in Mumbai and beyond.