Persistently high HIV seroprevalence among adult tuberculosis patients at a tertiary care centre in Delhi.
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to estimate HIV seroprevalence among tuberculosis patients presenting to tertiary care centre in Delhi.


METHODS
Cross-sectional prevalence study among all patients presenting to the inpatient and outpatient departments of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and receiving anti-tuberculosis treatment from May 2003 to April 2005.


RESULTS
Of the 448 patients who presented to the TB clinic during the study period, 23 (5.1%) were previously tested HIV-positive. An additional 21 patients (4.6%) refused testing, and 30 (6.7%) were lost to follow up. Of the remaining 374 patients who consented to testing, 31 (8.3%) were found to be HIV-positive. Risk factors for HIV seropositivity included high-risk sexual behaviours (48% in HIV-TB co-infected vs. 6% in TB infected patients, P<0.001) and history of blood transfusion (23% vs. 5%; P=0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
Previous studies from the same hospital published in 2000 and 2003 reported HIV seroprevalence among TB patients to be 0.4 and 9.4 per cent respectively. The current study documents a persistently high seropositivity among TB patients. These results emphasize the acute need for improved detection and treatment for HIV among TB patients in northern India.
Piramanayagam
P
P
Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110 029, India.
Tahir
Mohammad
M
Sharma
S K
SK
Smith-rohrberg
Duncan
D
Biswas
A
A
Vajpayee
M
M
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology