Publication date: Jul 31, 2025
Tuberculosis (TB) is an endemic respiratory disease in several countries, including South Korea. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may pose greater risks to individuals with pre-existing respiratory diseases, but there are few reports on how the post-recovery state from TB affects COVID-19 infection and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the susceptibility and mortality of COVID-19 in patients with a history of TB. We retrospectively analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Service of Korea. We extracted individuals with TB from 2011 to 2019 and matched them with a population-based control group. The main outcomes were COVID-19 incidence and death within 30 days of infection. The study included 138,278 matched pairs of individuals with and without a history of TB. COVID-19 incidence was slightly lower in the TB group (38. 0% vs. 38. 4%, P-value = 0. 023). Subgroup analysis showed significantly lower COVID-19 incidence in the pulmonary TB group compared to controls (P-value = 0. 001). However, the mortality rate was higher in the TB group (0. 9% vs. 0. 7%, P-value < 0. 001). This study showed that TB has a slightly protective effect against COVID-19 infection but increases the mortality rate. These findings will guide future research on the interaction between TB and COVID-19.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Coronavirus | Cohort studies |
| Korea | COVID-19 |
| Protective | Data mining |
| Tuberculosis | National health insurance |
| Tuberculosis |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | Tuberculosis |
| pathway | KEGG | Tuberculosis |
| disease | MESH | respiratory diseases |
| disease | MESH | infection |
| disease | IDO | susceptibility |
| disease | IDO | history |
| disease | MESH | death |