Latent Tuberculosis among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Positive Patients: Prevalence and Correlates

Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection affecting HIV-infected individuals and it remains the most common cause of death in patients with AIDS. Detection of latent tuberculosis and treatment largely prevents the development of active disease.

This study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with latent TB in HIV-positive patients.

This is an analytical cross-sectional study which involved 160 consented patients. Active tuberculosis was excluded using signs, symptoms and laboratory tests. All participants were tested using Quantiferon TB Gold Plus test kits. Data analysed with SPSS version 25.0 included patient's demographics, clinical and laboratory features. P< 0.05 was considered significant.

The mean age of HIV-infected patients was 42.69 ± 9.91 years and the mean age of the control was 41.29 ± 9.20 years with no significant statistical difference. The prevalence of latent tuberculosis among HIV-infected patients was found to be 22.50% while among controls was 10.0% which was statistically significant (p-0.001). CD4 cells count was observed to inversely predict latent tuberculosis (OR = 1.41; CI = 1.01-3.73) while viral load was found to directly predict latent tuberculosis (OR = 1.63; CI=1.04-4.25).

The prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection is significantly higher among HIV-positive patients when compared with HIV-negative patients. Also, the prevalence of HIV infection was higher amongst the female and less educated population.