Incidence of Tuberculosis as a Opportunistic Infection in Patients with HIV Getting Combined Anti Retroviral Therapy

Abstract

Introduction: The risk of active Tuberculosis increases after HIV seroconversion. It progressively increases with declining immunity. Tuberculosis (TB) epidemics in HIV has led to a dramatic upsurge in global TB incidence, resulting in remarkable increase in morbidity and mortality. Many clinical studies had shown that TB is one of the commonest opportunistic infection. This study is conducted to see the incidence of tuberculosis as an opportunistic infection in patients with HIV getting combined antiretroviral therapy (cART)

Materials and Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional comparative study. Five hundred patients with HIV who are getting cART were enrolled in the study.

Results: Analysis of individuals with HIV in our study amongst the 500 patients 266 (53.2%) were males and the remaining 234 (46.68%) were females. Amongst these HIV patients 48(18.04%) males and 17(7.26%) females had tuberculosis. 65(13%) of patients were TB/HIV co-infected. 2(4.1%) of these male TB/HIV patients had cervical gland TB.

Conclusion: The incidence of tuberculosis in HIV infected individuals is high. TB is the commonest opportunistic infection (OIs) in people living with HIV/AIDS. Males are predominant gender to have TB/HIV co-infection.