Background Epidemiological information on tuberculosis (TB) is required to plan control and prevention strategies and to inform service delivery systems. The aim of present study was to determine the epidemiological status of TB in Hamadan Province covering a seven-year period.   Methods In this cross-sectional study all registered TB patients suffering from any form of smear-positive, smear-ne...

Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) has dramatically increased the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in subSaharan Africa, where up to 60% of TB patients are coinfected with HIV and each year 200,000 TB deaths are attributable to HIV coinfection. Now HIV threatens control of TB in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can prevent...

BACKGROUND TB and HIV are the most prevalent communicable diseases of major public health importance in the populations of sub-Saharan African countries, and an estimated 30 % of HIV infected persons have dual infection with TB. TB is the leading cause of death in HIV infected individuals, and HIV co-infected TB patients have multiple individual, disease specific and treatment related factors t...

BACKGROUND The immunologic environment during HIV/M. tuberculosis co-infection is characterized by cytokine and chemokine irregularities that have been shown to increase immune activation, viral replication, and T cell dysfunction. METHODS We analysed ex vivo plasma samples from 17 HIV negative and 16 HIV pulmonary tuberculosis co infected cases using Luminex assay to see impact of HIV co-inf...

INTRODUCTION Disease-related stigma and knowledge are believed to be associated with patients' willingness to seek treatment and adherence to treatment. HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) presents unique challenges, because TB and HIV are both medically complex and stigmatizing diseases. In Thailand, we assessed knowledge and beliefs about these diseases among HIV-infected TB patients. METHODS ...

To understand the epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV co-infection in California, we cross-matched incident TB cases reported to state surveillance systems during 1993–2008 with cases in the state HIV/AIDS registry. Of 57,527 TB case-patients, 3,904 (7%) had known HIV infection. TB rates for persons with HIV declined from 437 to 126 cases/100,000 persons during 1993–2008; rates were highe...

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection drives tuberculosis (TB) incidence, and in some African countries, 80% of persons with TB have HIV infection. By the end of 2008, an estimated 33.2 million persons were infected with HIV, and in 2007, there were 2.7 million new HIV infections and 2 million HIV infection-related deaths. During the same year, there were 1.37 million (15%) cases of TB a...

BACKGROUND Provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling (PITC) is internationally recommended for tuberculosis (TB) patients, but the feasibility, effectiveness, and impact of this policy on the TB programme in India are unknown. We evaluated PITC of TB patients across two districts in India considered to have generalized HIV epidemics, Tiruchirappalli (population 2.5 million) and Mysore (pop...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of HIV in Enugu State is the highest in Southeastern Nigeria. Since HIV is associated with TB, it is important to assess the performance of the Enugu State TB program as regards HIV screening of TB cases. This study assesses the proportions of TB cases that are screened for HIV as well as the prevalence of HIV among individuals with TB at the Enugu State TB program of ...

OBJECTIVES Given the imperative to scale up integrated tuberculosis (TB) and HIV services in settings where both are of major public health importance, we aimed to synthesise knowledge concerning implementation of TB/HIV service integration. METHODS Systematic review of studies describing a strategy to facilitate TB and HIV service integration, searching 15 bibliographic databases including M...