1Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Pushpagiri Medical College, Tiruvalla, Kerala, India
2Department of Pulmonary Medicine, SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Orissa, India
3Department of Community Medicine, Pushpagiri Medical College, Tiruvalla, Kerala, India
*Corresponding author email: communitymedicine@pushpagiri.in
Online published on 29 July, 2015.
Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) co infection is becoming one of the most important public health issues in India. In some developing countries, 40% of all tuberculosis cases are attributed to HIV infection and in more than 50% of cases, tuberculosis is the first manifestation of HIV infection.
A cross sectional study was done among the in-patients of a tuberculosis ward in a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. Fifty patients with HIV and tuberculosis infection of an extra pulmonary site, were included in the study.
A vast majority of the participants were young males. More than 80% were using intoxicants like alcohol or tobacco, 76% admitted exposure to commercial sex workers and 12% were intravenous drug users. Twenty five (50%) of the participants had disseminated tuberculosis, that is tubercular infection of more than one anatomical site. Maximum (62%) participants had tubercular infection of lymph nodes, followed by pleura, abdomen and central nervous system.
The sociodemographic correlates of participants were similar to that seen in similar studies in other parts of the world. But in our study, tubercular lymphadenitis was the most common extra-pulmonary manifestation and proportion of disseminated tuberculosis cases was as high as 50%. Both these findings are different from studies from other parts of the world. These findings warrant a larger research study and programmatic changes to address issues of HIV/TB co infection.
Tuberculosis epidemiology, Tuberculosis diagnosis, Risk factors, HIV Infections/epidemiology
