HIV co-disease amongst people living with tuberculosis in northwestern, Ethiopia

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HIV co-infection among TB patients in Dabat district, northwest Ethiopia. Medical records of 1086 pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients registered from 2009 to 2012 at two health centers in the district were reviewed. HIV status was determined on 849 (78.2%) patients. The prevalence of HIV co-infection was 97 (11.4%). The majority, 61 (62.9%) and 90 (92.8%) of them were females and belonged to socio-economically productive age group, respectively. About half, 48 (49.5%) were smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis patients. In conclusion, these findings call for an emergency reaction through strengthening the tuberculosis and HIV collaborative activities, decentralizing the diagnostic and treatment centers to reach the periphery, providing women and young-age targeted interventions, stepping up early diagnosis and treatment initiation, improving nutritional supplementation to boost immunity, and providing prophylaxis to prevent opportunistic infections. Performing culture tests for all HIV infected smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis patients is also recommended.