Incidence Rate, Survival Rate, and Predictors for Virological Failure Among Adult TB/HIV Coinfected Clients

Background: Tuberculosis increases human immunodeficiency virus replication and accelerates human immunodeficiency virus progression in both tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus coinfected patients. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence rate, survival rate, and predictors for virological failure among adult tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus coinfected clients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at the University of Gondar Compressive Specialized Hospital from March 2017 to 2022. Secondary data sources were extracted based on inclusion criteria for adult tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus coinfected patients. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for adult tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus coinfected patients data. Result: The overall incidence rate of virological failure was 9.23 per 1000 person-months observations. Out of 148 coinfected patients, about 24.3% had virological failure. More than half of the patients, 52.7% and 54.1% in this study had a CD4 cell count ≥ 200/mm³ and a weight < 50 kg, respectively. Gender (hazard ratio = 1.3291, 95% CI: 1.1878-1.4873), bedridden functional status (hazard ratio = 4.7174; 95% CI: 1.2263-14.1470), WHO clinical Stage IV (hazard ratio = 1.1122, 95% CI: 1.2072-5.9693), patients with opportunistic infections (hazard ratio = 1.2849, 95% CI: 1.4289-3.8504), cotrimoxazole preventive therapy users (hazard ratio = 0.2039, 95% CI: 0.0496-0.8386), patients disclosure status (hazard ratio = 0.1609, 95% CI: 0.0279-0.9286), baseline viral load count < 1000 (hazard ratio = 0.0819, 95% CI: 0.3619-0.8447), and CD4 cell count ≥ 200 (hazard ratio = 0.2728, 95% CI: 0.0749-0.9924) were significant predictors at 5% level of confidence for time to virological failure. Conclusion: The incidence and survival rate of virological failure were high. The current study revealed that male coinfected patients, bedridden functional status, WHO clinical Stage IV, and opportunistic infections other than tuberculosis were associated with a higher time to virological failure while patients disclosed the disease to a family member, cotrimoxazole preventive therapy users, baseline viral load < 1000 copies/mL, and CD4 cell count ≥ 200/mm³ had significantly lower time to virological failure. Therefore, public health organizations should be given special attention based on these important predictors to improve their health and prolong the lives of coinfected patients.