Just a hypothetical question: is any person already affected with TB and who might have also been cured after drug therapy resistant to COVID? It got stuck to me as one of my friend got treatment for TB in the year 2010 ("May be got Immune also"). Miraculously, he did not get affected by COVID even after closely moving with COVID patients and even spending 17 days with COVID patients in an ICU. I wonder and got an hypothetical answer for it "May be those who effected with TB and got treatment are immune to COVID?
This is a fascinating hypothesis. However, current scientific evidence does not support the idea that patients who have recovered from TB are inherently immune or resistant to COVID-19.
While there are some biological and immunological interactions between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-2, they do not indicate cross-protective immunity. In fact, studies suggest the opposite: coinfection with TB and COVID-19 is often associated with worse clinical outcomes, including increased mortality, especially in settings with delayed TB diagnosis or advanced immunosuppression.
Some key points:
- TB causes chronic inflammation and structural lung damage, which can increase susceptibility to respiratory viral infections, including COVID-19.
- COVID-19 can exacerbate latent TB or trigger TB reactivation due to immune dysregulation.
- There is no known cross-immunity between M. tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-2.
- The immune response to TB (Th1-type immunity) is different from the immune response to acute viral infections like COVID-19.
- Some individual cases of resistance may be coincidental or related to genetic or environmental factors, but not TB history per se.
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