THE PREVALENCE OF HIV-1 ANTIBODIES IN 106 TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Sera were collected from all 106 tuberculosis (TB) patients consecutively seen over a period of six months at the Armed Forces General Hospital. All were tested for the presence of HIV-I antibodies, using the ELISA (Wellcozyme) and confirmed with the Western Blot (Biorad), out of which 7 reacted positively. Six of the seven HIV-I positive patients had pulmonary tuberculosis and only one had the disseminated form as opposed to 31% of the 106 patients presenting with the latter. Five of the HIV -I positive patients had a history of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) compared to 30 of the 99 HIV-I negative patients (39.4%). The study seems to show a positive association between HIV-I infection and tuberculosis. We therefore believe that further studies should be done in this country in order to a certain the association between the two diseases.