Sero-Prevalence of TB-HIV & HIV-TB Co-Infection among Visakhapatnam Urban Population in Andhra Pradesh - A Retrospective Observational Study

Background &Objectives: Globally patients living with HIV (PLHIV) are more prone to develop active TB disease than those living without HIV due to immunosuppression and reactivation. Also the fact that MDR-TB & XDR-TB are more common among HIV-TB co-infection cases. WHO suggests the use of Gene-Xpert to diagnose HIV-TB and the RIF resistance. PTB is reported in 75% of cases of HIV-TB. The objective is to study the burden of seroprevalence of HIV-TB co-infection among the population of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Material & Methods: The case finding data is collected from the ART center of District Tuberculous Center of Visakhapatnam, AP with permission and clearance. A total of 22,504 cases of tuberculosis and 1577 cases of HIV out of it for the period 2015 to 2018 is tabulated and analysed on excel sheet with SPSS software to study the HIV rate among TB cases. The present study deals with 361 cases of confirmed TB (Table-5) out of presumptive TB cases of tested 4704 of the total screened 69,566 cases of HIV-TB. It is retrospective, study conducted at the research center, GIMSR (Gitam Institute of Medical Sciences & Research) Visakhapatnam, AP. Results: The prevalence is 0.52% which is just higher than the National average prevalence of 0.26%. And average prevalence rate of HIV-TB per one lakh population is 3.89 (Table-6) of total population of Visakhapatnam Urban in AP State. Conclusions: The confirmed HIV-TB cases range from 6.64% to 7.87% out of the presumptive TB cases among the screened cases at ART-OP. Raising the immune status of the patient by improving nutrition, correcting anaemia with blood transfusion. HIV-TB Co-Infection has to be regarded as a special area of public health problem by linking RNTCP with NACP