Hiv Seroprevalence Among Tuberculosis Patients In East Midnapore District Of West Bengal, India

HIV is the most important known risk factor that promotes progression to active TB in people with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The lifetime risk of tuberculosis in immune competent persons is 5% to 10%, but in HIV positive individuals, there is a 5% to 15% annual risk of developing active TB disease. In India, there were 2.5 million people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) at the end of 2007 while the incidence of TB was approximately 1.8 million cases per year. Hence, the present study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of HIV amongst a cohort of TB patients registered in selected Tuberculosis Units (TUs) of Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) in East Midnapore, West Bengal, India. The present study shows that the prevalence of HIV among TB patients registered under RNTCP is 3.9% at three T.Us. of East Midnapore district of West Bengal, India. HIV was more prevalent among men than women (2.8% vs 1.1%).