Seroprevalence of HIV infection among tuberculosis patients in Agra, India--a hospital-based study

In this study which was carried over a period of 4 years, from 2001 to 2004, 600 adult patients with active TB disease attending the OPD of TBDTC, Agra, were screened for HIV-1/2 antibodies. Of these, 26 were found to be HIV-positive. Seroprevalence of HIV infection among adult TB patients in Agra is 4.3% (26/600). The HIV infection was found to be more in females, i.e. 7.95% (7/88) than in males, 3.71% (19/512). HIV-positivity of 5% was observed in the age groups, 15-24 and 25-34 years, i.e. 3/60 and 13/260, respectively. Among HIV-positive TB patients, 4.2% (22/524) were of pulmonary and 5.3% (4/76) were of extra-pulmonary type. A total of 3.04% (6/197) of HIV-positive TB patients were PPD positive and 4.96% (20/403) were PPD negative and bacillary positivity was 4.4% (15/340) and bacillary negativity was 4.2% (11/260). A total of 3.5% (18/515) of TB patients had a history of positive contact, i.e. spouse or one of the family members was HIV-infected. The difference in signs and symptoms among the HIV positive and HIV negative TB patients was found to be statistically significant.