Sahel Medical Journal (Jan 2011)
Treatment outcome of tuberculosis-HIV co-infection in North-central Nigeria
Abstract
Background: The epidemic of HIV/AIDS has greatly boosted the incidence and prevalence of tuberculosi especially in developing countries of Africa. In Nigeria, data is scanty on the outcome of the management of HIV-TB co-infection. We aimed to evaluate the outcome of tuberculosis (TB) treatment in TB-HIV co-infected patients in North-Central Nigeria. Method: A one-year retrospective review of data obtained from the registry of the Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS) centre of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) Hospital Mangu, Plateai, State, North-Central Nigeria was undertaken. TB treatment outcome was described as cure, completed therapy, transferred-out, treatment failure, default or death. Results: In all, 273 cases were reviewed with median age at 30years (range 1-70). Only 124(45°/$: patients had HIV screening with 76(27.8%) sero-positives. Sputum smear positive TB was seen /v 108(39.6%) cases with 34 (31.5%) being sero-positive for HIV, and 28(25.9%) not consenting to Hit screening. Of the 273 cases, 55(20.14%) had documented evidence of cure with 122(44.69%) completing treatment for TB; 78(28.57%) patients transferred-out to other TB treatment centers; 1(0.37%) patient haqf treatment failure: 13(4.76%) died; 4(1.47%) defaulted from treatment. There is a statistically significant association between TB/HIV co-infection and dying from TB, p < 0.007, OR 8.81. Conclusion: TB/HIV co-infection is common in our population with substantial number of persons sfrf declining HIV screening. The cure rate for TB in this cohort is poor. Further studies are suggested to trul. address the poor treatment outcome.
