ABSTRACT
@# Tuberculosis is a major cause of disability and death worldwide. One of the targets of Sustainable Goal Development for 2030 is to put an end to tuberculosis epidemics. This study accessed the occurrence of tuberculosis, its co-infection with HIV and rifampicin resistance in the study area, as well as the reliability of acid fast bacilli (AFB) test in tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. Methods: The study, which was made up of both retrospective and prospective TB investigations, was carried out at the State Specialist Hospital, Ikere–Ekiti, Nigeria, covering April 2014 to March 2017. Sputum samples from 1227 individuals with suspected cases of TB, made up of 496 (40.42%) males and 731 (58.11%) females, were analysed for TB by smear microscopy for AFB and molecular determination using GeneXpert machine. Results: A total of 141 (11.49%) individuals were diagnosed tuberculosis positive using the GeneXpert machine, while 78 (6.36%) tested positive by AFB technique. Eleven (7.8 %) of the 141 tuberculosis-positive cases were rifampicin resistant; also a tuberculosis - HIV co-infection rate of 25.53% was obtained. The risk factors associated with TB in the study were smoking, alcoholism, over-crowding and HIV co-infection. Using the GeneXpert as a standard, the AFB’s sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value were 43.26, 98.43, 78.20 and 93.04% respectively. Conclusion: The high occurrence of rifampicin resistant tuberculosis and HIV-TB co-infection are of serious concern. The low sensitivity and PPV values, as well as its inability to detect drug resistant TB, undermine the reliability of AFB.