RESUMO
We evaluated whether HBV +ve and HCV +ve patients are at high risk for developing drug induced hepatitis than control subjects during treatment for tuberculosis with standard short course regimens. Observational cohort study. This study was conducted at Department of Medicine, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro from May 2008 to May 2011. All newly diagnosed active tuberculosis patients were included in the study population and they were further screened for hepatitis B surface antigen and HCV antibodies. All patients were divided into three groups. One having no co-infection with hepatitis B and Hepatitis C and was taken as control group, second group was co-infected with hepatitis B and third was co-infected with hepatitis C. short course anti tuberculous regimen was started and patients were followed for six months. One hundred and twenty eight tuberculous patients were divided into three groups. 92 in control groups without any co-infection with hepatitis B and C, 10 were HBV +ve and 26 were HCV +ve. During follow up 24 developed drug induced hepatitis, 8[38.33%, n = 24] in control group, 2[8.33%, n = 24] in hepatitis B group and 14[58.33%, n = 24] in hepatitis C group. These findings suggest that treatment for tuberculosis in HCV seropositive patients is a risk factor for the development of hepatitis exacerbation and HBV seropositive patients shows no any increased risk of hepatitis exacerbation