Characteristics and Outcomes of TB and HIV Co-infections

People Living with HIV (PLHIV) are prone to several opportunistic infections depending on the degree of immunosuppression as well as infections prevalent in their geographic area/country. These include a wide variety of mycobacterial diseases, fungal infections, bacterial pneumonias, pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, cryptococcal infections, toxoplasmosis etc.

Tuberculosis remains the most common opportunistic infection in the developing countries like South Africa and India.

HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are two of the most challenging infections faced by the humanity. HIV is the most important risk factor for progression of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) to active disease. The most common cause of death among PLHIV is tuberculosis. These two infections place immense burden on health care systems worldwide. During the last two decades, sustained research and public health initiatives on prevention and therapeutic advances have allayed morbidity and mortality due to HIV and TB to a large extent, however more needs to be done.

Globally, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with TB and an estimated 1.4 million people died of TB in 2018 (1.2 million among HIV negative and 251 000 among HIV positive people). There were around 37.9 million PLHIV worldwide in 2018.

In the pre-antiretroviral therapy (ART) era, nearly one-third of HIV/AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) related deaths were due to TB. Wider availability of ART has reduced the mortality of HIV-associated TB significantly, but it still remains high compared to HIV-uninfected individuals. The mortality risk with HIV TB coinfection accounts for approximately 25% of global HIV/AIDS deaths every year.

This study aims to investigate characteristics and outcomes of TB and HIV co-infections in Upper Egypt.