Prevalence and trend of TB/HIV co-infection in Suhum Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections have been identified to form a deadly synergy that is posing serious threats to human health and economic development particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Six years into the end TB strategy, it is imperative to assess HIV detection rate among TB patients in order to determine the prevalence as well as establish the temporal trend of the co-morbidity in the Eastern region of Ghana where the magnitude of HIV and TB/HIV co-morbidity have consistently been noted to be high. The study reviewed records of 840 TB patients retrospectively from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2018 in Suhum Municipal. Socio-demographic characteristics and clinical data of study participants were extracted from the Municipal TB registers using an excel spread sheet. Data were exported into STATA version 16.0 for analysis with statistical significance set at p-value ≤0.05. Of the 840 TB patients, 793 (94.4%) were screened for HIV, with 18.6% (95% CI: 0.16–0.21) yielding positive results. A sharp increase in the trend of the co-infection was observed from 6 (14.6%) in 2009 to 21 (36.8%) in 2010. The highest (40.4%) co-infection prevalence was recorded in 2011. The study recorded an overall decreasing trend of the co-infection. Case detection rate for HIV among persons living with TB was high. TB/HIV co-infection rate in Suhum Municipal is high and occurs more often among females and persons aged 30 years to 49 years. A fairly stable prevalence trend of TB/HIV co-infection rate was also identified. In conclusion, ongoing integrated TB/HIV activities are showing good results and therefore need to be sustained.

Pulmonary Tuberculosis Prevalence and Associated Factors Among Adult Patients Visiting Finchwa Health Center, West Guji Zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…In the current study, the TB prevalence among HIV seropositives was 38.5%. This finding is higher than the study conducted in Nepal, which reported 9.9% [23], the study done in Ghana, which reported 18.6% [24], Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Ethiopia, which reported 16.6% [25], and Addis Ababa, which reported 5.3% [26]. However, this finding is lower than the study conducted in Tanzania, which reported 58.3% [27], and Bale Goba and Robe hospitals, which reported 44.4% [20].The implications are that TB is the most opportunistic infection among people living with HIV and increases the chance of latent TB infection progressing to active TB disease.…”

Long-term survival experience of tuberculosis patients in a rural district of Ghana

“…Also, males have poor health-seeking behaviour than females in our part of the country which may adversely impact their treatment adherence and outcomes. Several studies have also reported the lethal synergy between TB and HIV [7,[27][28][29][30][31]. In congruence, Amante and Ahemed [32] and Teketelew et al [20] demonstrated that younger age and Pulmonary negative TB cases were at significant risk of survival.…”

Temporal trend in the incidence of tuberculosis-HIV coinfection in Brazil, by macro-region, Federative Unit, sex and age group, 2010-2021

“…As an example, a study carried out in a region of Ghana showed that the strengthening of collaborative actions between TB and HIV control programs, such as the provision of tests, resulted in significant periods of increased coinfection in the time series from 2008 to 2018. 22 …”

“…As an example, a study carried out in a region of Ghana showed that the strengthening of collaborative actions between TB and HIV control programs, such as the provision of tests, resulted in significant periods of increased coinfection in the time series from 2008 to 2018. 22 The dual testing policy is particularly relevant in Brazil, given the high number of people who discover their HIV infection only as a result of TB. In 2020, data resulting from linkage between the SINAN, SIM, SISCEL and SICLOM databases showed that 47.9% of registered coinfection cases were diagnosed with HIV due to TB.…”