A study of the infectivity of HIV associated tuberculosis

Abstract

This is a comparative study of 85 contacts of HIV infected patients with tuberculosis and 191 contacts of tuberculosis patients without HIV infection. All contacts were studied for active disease or tuberculosis infection through a questionnaire, physical examination, tuberculin skin test with or without X-rays and appropriate laboratory investigations.

The main objective of thiswork. was to study the impact or HIV on the infectivity of tuberculosis Active tuberculosis was found to occur in 8 (9.4%) contacts of HIV infected tuberculosis patients compared with 5 (2.6%) contacts of patients without HIV infection. The difference was statistically significant, (P(O.05) suggesting that secondary attack rate may be higher among contacts of HIV infected tuberculosis patients and this may in future contribute to an increased incidence of tuberuclosis in the population. It is therefore recommended that further studies be pertormed in this area to help establish the impact of HiV on infectivity of tuberculosis if effective control of the disease (tuberculosis) is to be achieved.