HIV/TB Integrated Services: Perception of HIV and TB Clients in a Tertiary Health Facility in Lagos State Nigeria

Abstract

HIV/AIDS remains a global public health issue which has claimed an estimated of 35 million lives since the start of the epidemic and further 78 million people still living with the virus. Tuberculosis (TB) is a major disease with high incident cases and over 1.3 million deaths recorded in 2012 even with the availability of effective chemotherapy. This survey is a descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative study among 87 enrolled clients attending HIV/TB integrated service at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH) Lagos in Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed with SPSS version 21 with Chisquare used to test for association. Eighty percent (80) of the HIV clients were female while the TB patients were 41% male. Most of the respondents had only secondary school education and were married as at the time of the survey. Generally, unprotected sexual intercourse with a HIV infected person is the most known mode of spreading HIV among respondents. Majority of the respondents receives treatment for both TB and HIV in the same facility and view antiretrovirals as drugs responsible for preventing death from HIV/AIDS. While over 70% of the respondents agreed to like being visited by healthcare workers, over 60% reported to have never being visited by healthcare workers. The most reported advantages of integrated services for HIV and TB were "save cost for transportation and save time". The survey revealed good knowledge about HIV and TB among respondents while also showing that perception about integrated HIV and TB services is welcomed among the respondents. Increasing the number of healthcare workers and incentivizing the approach for healthcare workers were recommended.