Why disease due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis is less common than expected in HIV-positive patients in Edinburgh.
By December 1993, only five cases of tuberculosis were observed in the 1030 HIV-positive patients in Edinburgh, U.K., although, on the basis of historical tuberculin skin test data, between four and eight new cases of tuberculosis were expected per year. Of 310 HIV-positive patients, none of the 19 (6.1%) who were tuberculin skin test positive had developed tuberculosis after 87 months (average) of follow-up. It is suggested that new or re-infection is a more common cause of tuberculosis in HIV-positive patients than reactivation. Restriction fragment length polymorphism typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains could confirm this hypothesis and support currently suggested additional infection control procedures.
D000328:Adult; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014374:Tuberculin Test; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology