Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Tuberculosis Positive Patients in General Hospital Onitsha, Nigeria

摘要

Tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection is a major challenge in tuberculosis prevention and control. The prevalence of HIV in tuberculosis patients aged between 10 and 59 years receiving medical care at General Hospital Onitsha, Nigeria was investigated. Seventy-five of the patients were males while eight-five were females. Their sputum and blood samples were screened for tuberculosis and HIV. The sputum samples were examined by microscopy and culture. Patients between 20 and 29 years of age had the highest number of tuberculosis cases (30.7%) while those aged between 50 and 59 years had the least number of cases (9.4%). Forty-five males (28.1%) and fifty females (31.2%) tested positive to HIV respectively. The prevalence of HIV among the tuberculosis patients was 59.3%. Twenty-eight patients (29.5%) composed of twelve males (12.6%) and sixteen females (16.9%) between 20 and 29 years had TB/HIV while eleven patients (11.6%) comprising six males (6.3%) and five females (5.3%) between 50 and 59 years were co-infected. Acid-fast bacilli were detected by culture in 92 (57.5%) of the tuberculosis patients while they were detected by microscopy in 68 (42.3%) of the patients indicating the higher sensitivity of culture for tuberculosis case detection.