Status of HIV serology among pulmonary tuberculosis patients: the pattern of pulmonary tuberculosis and the characteristics of patients

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death among people with HIV. In 2009, there was an estimate of 380,000 deaths due to TB among HIV patients. 78% of TB/HIV co‐infection cases reside in sub‐Saharan Africa; HIV prevalence is as high as 80% in some countries. Therefore, the prevalence of HIV infection in the study population of TB was determined. Clinical, laboratory and radiological presentation of TB were analyzed and compared between HIV sero‐ve and HIV sero + ve patients. Observational case‐finding hospital‐based study was done on 60 TB patients, performed in 3 hospitals in Sudan. Interview‐based questionnaires and medical records were used for data collection. Prevalence of HIV‐infected TB patients among the study population was 16.7%. The study revealed that 50% of the HIV+ve TB patients were younger than 30 years. There was no major sex difference between HIV+ve and −ve TB patients (P=0.905). However, males were predominant among the whole study population of TB patients. 60% of HIV+ve patients originated from the north, whereas the origins of the HIV‐ve patients were more or less equally distributed (P=0.012). Clinical presentations of HIV+ve and −ve TB patients were similar and the differences were not statistically significant. When comparing the lab findings;+ve sputum smear was found more common among HIV+ve patients (70% vs. 54%) and a+ve PPD test was also more common among HIV+ve patients (75% vs. 50%). A clear CXR was the only statistically significant difference between the two groups, being more common in HIV+ve (40% vs. 6%) (P=0.002). The study concluded that the prevalence found was low in comparison to most of the countries in the region but high in comparison to developed countries. The main differences between HIV+ve and −ve was a+ve sputum smear, +ve PPD test, and a clear CXR, all of which were more common in HIV+ve TB patients. Therefore, the TB/HIV programme should be strengthened; starting by knowing the exact incidence of TB/HIV among the population, implementing better diagnostic tools and more researches to be conducted on a larger scale.