Abstract

MACHADO, Jorge Enrique  and  MARTINEZ, José William. Tuberculosis-HIV coinfection in patients of Pereira, Colombia. Colomb. Med. [online]. 2005, vol.36, n.4, pp.239-243. ISSN 1657-9534.

BACKGROUND: The Instituto Municipal de Salud de Pereira, reported in 2003, an increase of level in tuberculosis (TB). This increase was hypothetically related with AIDS in Pereira. METHODS: All of the patients with TB in public hospitals were examined with Elisa test and Western Blot test. This research lasted 5 months. Since patients’ records were incomplete it was necessary visiting patients’ houses in order to obtain more data. RESULTS: Were reported 94 cases of TB disease in Pereira in 5 months; among them 58.5% were males. Median age was 41 years old. Pulmonary TB was present in 90.4% patients; of these 80.9% were highly infectious, with acid-fast bacilli (AFB) identified on sputum smear. Only 7 patients were reactive to the Elisa test, and of them 3 patients were confirmed with Western Blot test. The prevalence of co infection was 3.2% IC95% 0.7, 9.04. Of the three patients two were women and one had tuberculous meningitis. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of TB and HIV co infection is low if compared with others cities in Colombia. The TB increase wasn’t related to co-infection with HIV. It’s very important to have a quality control of patients’ records.

Keywords : Tuberculosis; HIV; Co-infection; Microscopic smear test.