A Study of HIV-TB Co-infection and its Determinants at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Goa

Parrikar, Anika; Lawande, Durga; Cacodcar, Jagadish

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Since the discovery of HIV in the 1980's,there has been an alarming upsurge of Tuberculosis acrossthe globe. TB is the most common and usually the firstopportunistic infection in people living with HIV. BothHIV and TB together form the cursed duet, each one fastforwarding the progression of the other. Aims &

Objectives:

To study the epidemiology & various determinants of HIV-TBco-infection in HIV positive patients attending ART center atGoa Medical College (GMC), Goa. To study the prevalence ofHIV- TB co-infection. Settings and

Design:

It was a three yearrecord based retrospective observational study carried out atthe antiretroviral therapy center of a tertiary care Hospital inthe state of Goa.Material and

methods:

Study group comprised of 342 casesof HIV-TB co-infected patients above 15 years of age, and thecontrol group was formed by equal number of non TB, HIVinfected patients diagnosed during the same period. Variousdeterminants like age, gender, occupation, educational status,mode of transmission of HIV, addictions, CD4 counts etcwere compared. Statistical

analysis:

was done by calculatingpercentages and proportion by SPSS 14.0 version and Chisquare test was used for statistical significance, with P valuesless than 0.05 considered as statistically significant.

Results:

The prevalence of HIV-TB co-infection during thestudy period was found to be 26.6%. The incidence of coinfection was found to be higher in males (60.8%), in thosewho were semiskilled workers and with level of education upto secondary school and all these were found to be statisticallysignificant. Alcohol consumption, low CD4 counts and Comorbid illness like anemia were also found to be statisticallysignificant.

Conclusions:

Higher HIV-TB co-infection prevalence ratein the state warrants upgradation of disease control programswith efforts to increase awareness about the prevention andspread of both the diseases and their effective management.