Having a recent tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis can skyrocket a person's likelihood of dying from COVID-19, a new study finds.
Researchers from the California Department of Health gathered statewide data to identify how much of an increased risk of death TB patients suffered during the pandemic.
They found a person who was diagnosed with both TB and Covid within 30 days was 20 times as likely to die than someone who only had the virus, and twice as likely to die when compared to someone diagnosed with TB before the pandemic.
The findings show the high risk people with TB - a condition that can severely damage a person's lungs - face during the pandemic.
Researchers found a direct correlation between how recent a TB diagnosis is and the likelihood of dying of Covid. A person diagnosed with TB within 30 days of Covid infection are 20 times as likely to die than the average person, and twice as likely to die as someone infected with TB before the pandemic
TB is a potentially devastating bacterial infection that can cause permanent lung damage, putting them at further risk from a virus like Covid (file image)
Researchers, who published their findings on Friday in JAMA Network Open, included data from 3.4 million Californians who had either TB or Covid - or both - between September 2019 and December 2020.
Participants were split into three groups. The largest group, making up 99 percent of partcipants, included people who contracted Covid, but not TB.
A second group, of around 6,000 people, included those who had a TB diagnosis before the pandemic and then contracted Covid.
The third group of 91 people included those who were diagnosed with both TB and the virus within 120 days of each other.
Researchers found that the rate of Covid infection among TB patients was similar to that
