COVID-19 and Medical Error in a Pregnant Woman with Pleural Tuberculosis: A Case Report

Recently, the pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global concern. In addition, the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to some other bacterial and viral respiratory infections, such as pleural tuberculosis; therefore, it is very important to make an accurate diagnosis of the disease. In this regard, the present study introduced a young pregnant woman with pleural tuberculosis.

A 24-year-old primigravida at 34 weeks of gestation referred to Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad, Khorasan-e-Razavi, Iran, with fever, tachycardia, dyspnea, and decrease in respiratory sounds. Considering the clinical signs and symptoms of the patient, such as fever and respiratory symptoms, the case was admitted to the COVID-19 intensive care unit. According to the negative result of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for COVID-19, unusual features of COVID-19 lung involvement in the patient’s computed tomography (CT) report, and similarity of the clinical symptoms with those of tuberculosis, pleural tuberculosis was diagnosed for this patient. Finally, the improvement of her symptoms was observed with the initiation of tuberculosis treatment for the case.

Paying attention to all differential diagnoses and chest CT scan views is important to avoid the unnecessary hospitalization of patients in the centers and wards for COVID-19.