Tuberculosis and HIV: danse macabre.

摘要

For anyone who has practiced medicine in sub-Saharan Africa, the complex symbiosis of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) is all too familiar. The statistics are so staggering as to invoke a momentary sense of numb futility: one-third of 33 million HIV-infected individuals worldwide infected with TB, accounting for 23% of HIV deaths; TB risk 20-30 times greater in HIV-infected individuals than among persons without HIV; increased TB-related mortality and drug resistance among HIV-infected TB cases [1]. What is more, HIV-infected individuals are more likely than HIV-uninfected individuals to experience recurrent TB, largely as a result of exogenous reinfection [2].