TB/HIV Co-infection in Iran: Current Situation and the Modeling Study for Future Policy

Tuberculosis (TB) is the commonest opportunistic disease among HIV patients with an estimated of 1.2 million HIV positive new TB cases in the world, in 2014 (1, 2). TB is the leading cause of death among HIV/AIDS patients (2) and it also enhances the progression of HIV to AIDS, increases the infectivity and reduces the efficacy of HIV treatment (3). Up to 10% of HIV/TB patients develop active TB (4). Co-infection with HIV can enhance the risk of latent TB reactivation by 20-fold (5). According the projection of WHO, TB and HIV infections will one of the tops 20 causes of death in 2030 (6). Based on the WHO report, the status of HIV morbidity in 29% of Iranian TB patients were clear and 9% of them were HIV positive (Table 1). The estimated incidence rate of TB in Iran was 22 (18-26) and among TB/HIV cases was 0.51 (0.38 – 0.66) per 100,000 persons in 2014 (Table 2) (7).