Tuberculosis in Poland: Epidemiological and Molecular Analysis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic may have a negative impact on the proper implementation of TB control programmes and may increase TB incidence rates in the near future. The aim of this study was to perform an epidemiological and molecular analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains cultured from tuberculosis patients in Poland in 2020 and to compare the results of monitoring drug-resistant tuberculosis in Poland with previous studies in 2012 and 2016. The analysis was based on questionnaires and strains sent by regional laboratories during the 12 months of 2020. Molecular analysis was performed by spoligotyping 20% of the strains sensitive to the four primary antimycobacterial drugs and all of the drug-resistant strains. The number of strains sent for analysis dropped threefold, from 4136 in 2012 to 1383 in 2020. The incidence of tuberculosis among men was higher than among women. There was an increase in strains' resistance to antimycobacterial drugs in both newly diagnosed patients, from 4.4% in 2012 to 6.1% in 2020, and previously treated patients, from 11.7% to 12.3%. Four-year resistance increased to 1% and 2.1%, respectively. The spoligotype SIT1 was the most abundant among the resistant strains (17%), and SIT53 (13.9%) was the most common among susceptible strains.