Management of tuberculosis patients and the role of forensic medicine in COVID-19 pandemic

Tuberculosis and Coronaviral disease-19 had a global impact in 2020 and still predominating, both infectious diseases similar to the lethal pandemics spread in one route, likely airborne transmission, the infected person could spread to healthy people. However, tuberculosis slightly varies from COVID-19. Though the primordial disease of the tuberculosis epidemic has had a vast impact on this society, besides the COVID-19 pandemic with other co-morbidities, conditions faced numerous complications. This review exemplified the impact of two lethal diseases in changing patient care, diagnostic issues, and forensic sciences roles. The diagnosis of tuberculosis with a massive concern due to standard testing methods, leading to inaccuracy, sensitivity, and prolonged time consumption. In addition, unavailability of testing kits, equipment failure, over-crowd in hospitals and fewer healthcare workers, a prolonged testing period, and finally, anxiety about COVID-19. Also, the contribution of forensic sciences in the autopsy of the exact cause of infectious diseases is crucial. Likewise, during this pandemic, there has been a drastic reduction in tuberculosis incidence in high-burden countries and a synergistic effect of both diseases. So, this review summarized the overall burden of tuberculosis management during COVID-19 and followed the guidelines of various nations' healthcare authorities to mitigate the consequences of tuberculosis diagnosis and prognosis during the pandemic.