Prevalence of Tuberculosis in the Rural area of Maharashtra among HIV infected Persons

ABSTRACT Background: Diagnosing tuberculosis in HIV infected person is a major public health challenge. TB disease accelerates the natural course of HIV disease and similarly, HIV infection results in more rapid progression from latent TB infection to TB diseases. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of tuberculosis in HIV infected patients in rural hospital of Maharashtra in view of the significance of TB in HIV. Its association with age and gender was also determined. Material and Methods: This study was conducted at rural hospital of Maharashtra over a period of three years. All newly diagnosed HIV positive patients from the Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre (VCTC) were enrolled in the TB screening study. Three sputum samples were collected from each patient for smear examination. Smears were stained by the Ziehl- Neelsen technique. Results: The study population consists of 334 confirmed HIV patients. The overall prevalence of co infection of M TB and HIV was 3.29 %. Out of these 7 were females and 4 were males. TB prevalence rate for HIV infected patients in WHO clinical stages 3 and 4 was highest. Conclusion: Risk of developing TB increases markedly with HIV disease progression. Patients at extremely high risk can be identified on the basis of clinical features and microbiological screening. Such individuals would be suitable for targeted TB treatment.