ABSTRACT
Objetivo general: Establecer la prevalencia y los factores asociados a la coinfección TBC/VIH-SIDA en adolescentes y adultos de la consulta externa y el servicio de hospitalización de las Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios de Salud (IPS) de Barranquilla de julio de 2003 a junio de 2004. / Aim: To establish the prevalence of TB-HIV co-infection and its determinants among HIV-positiveadolescents and adults, attending outpatient and inpatient clinics of Barranquilla, from July 2003to June 2004.Methods: A cross-sectional study was held in 173 patients attending HIV/AIDS control programs.After patient informed consent, data was mainly obtained from secondary source (clinical histories)and in a lesser proportion from interviews. The variables studied were related to personal habits anddemographic, socio-economic and clinical characteristics. Both, univariate and bivariate analysiswas done in Epi-Info V6.04d.Results: Most patients were males of low socioeconomic status. Of 173 HIV-positives, 19 also hadtuberculosis, for a co-infection prevalence of 11 percent. Pulmonary tuberculosis was the predominantclinical form (17 cases). Bivariate analysis showed that TB-HIV co-infection was associated tothe presence of opportunistic infections (p=0.001), drug-abuse (p=0.026), body mass index under20 (p=0.042) and scarce use of antiretroviral therapy (p=0.0002). Although CD4+ T-lymphocytecount< 200/uL was found to be more common in patients with co-infection, association showed nostatistical significance.Conclusions: TB-HIV co-infection prevalence shown in this study was similar to that of someCaribbean and Latin-American countries but lower than in Jamaica. Contrary to other studies,pulmonary tuberculosis was predominant. Despite the factors associated to TB-HIV comorbidityare similar to those seen in TB and HIV independently, these study elicited evidence of the effect ofthe immunological deterioration and the non-use of antiretroviral therapy.