Tuberculosis and novel Wuhan coronavirus infection: Pathological interrelationship.

Dear Editor,

New emerging infectious disease is usually an important global public health consideration. In December 2019, a new viral disease was reported from China. The infection is due to novel coronavirus. The infection can cause the febrile illness and severe respiratory problem. At present, this disease has already been imported to many countries such as Thailand, Japan and South Korea. As a new disease, the knowledge on this infection is limited. In developing countries, there are usually many common endemic diseases. There is a chance that there might be a concurrence between new disease and endemic disease. Regarding respiratory infectious disease, tuberculosis is common in several countries. The concurrence between tuberculosis and the novel Wuhan coronavirus infection is an interesting issue in clinical mycobacteriology. Based on the available data (21 January 2020), there are at least 221 cases of novel Wuhan coronavirus infection. Of these cases, there is a case with tuberculosis coinfection giving the rate equal to 0.45%. There are 6 death cases including to the case with tuberculosis coinfection. Based on this data, it might imply that tuberculosis might be associated with mortality risk in Wuhan coronavirus infection (death rates among the patients without tuberculosis versus with tuberculosis are 2.27% versus 100%). The left question is whether there is any interrelationship on pathogenesis of tuberculosis and Wuhan coronavirus infection. Further studies on this specific issue is interesting.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have none to declare.