Background: In our previous study we found that half of the patients treated at the Nylon District Hospital tuberculosis (TB) treatment centre were seropositive. HIV does not only fuel the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide but it is also at least in part,
responsible for the non-achievement of the 85% cure rate target.
Objective: To compare the TB treatment outcome of Smear Positive Pulmonary tuberculosis (SPPT) patients who did an HIV test and those who refused the test as well as compare the treatment outcomes between the HIV positive and HIV negative SPPT patients from 2003 to 2005, all of whom were treated as outpatients under routine programme conditions. Design: A retrospective study. Subjects: Four hundred and twenty patients were registered from 2003 to 2005 as having SPPT. Setting: The Nylon District Hospital, Cameroon.
Results: Thirty five point two per cent of the 386 SPPT patients also had HIV. The overall cure rate, default rate and death rate were 69%, 23.6% and 3.3% respectively. SPPT/HIV co-infected patients were significantly more likely to default from treatment (28.7% versus 16.8%, OR 1.943, 95%CI 1.150-3.285) to die in the course of treatment (7.4% versus 0.4%, OR 23.714, 95%CI 2.894-194.330) or not to be cured (58.8% versus 78.8%, OR 0.404, 95%CI 0.250-0.652) compared to SPPT/HIV negative patients. Likewise SPPT patients not tested for HIV were significantly less cured (38.2% versus 71.8%, OR 0.21, 95%CI 0.099-0.445) and defaulted most (52.9% versus 21%, OR 4.773 95%CI 2.281-9.991) compared to SPPT patients tested for HIV. Conclusion: SPPT patients infected with HIV or not tested for HIV in the course of TB treatment are likely to suffer from unfavorable treatment outcomes. Thus health personnel
prescribing anti- TB drugs should be provided with the necessary expertise to diagnose and manage HIV so that TB/HIV co-infected patients benefit from an integrated package of care in and out of the hospital.