Revista de Pesquisa sobre HIV e AIDS

The Changing Face of TB Treatment for People living with HIV/AIDS

Margaret Muthoni Wanyoike

In Africa, TB is one among the foremost common infections and a number one explanation for death among people living with HIV. TB may be a curable disease. However, it accounts for 2 million deaths each year1. Among HIV positive people, 15% of mortality is TB related. Poor people are within the majority of the African population suffering from TB; 95% of the disease is concentrated within the developing world. Fourteen million people are co-infected with TB/HIV. 10 million of those people reside in Africa. The TB epidemic in Africa is exacerbated by the scarcity of resources; neglect, ignorance, poverty, and other challenges posed by TB/HIV co-infection. These challenges have collectively compounded TB emergency diagnostics, thereby jeopardizing people with HIV. HIV increases the danger of developing TB by 50% and this is often the most agent for the worldwide increase in TB prevalence, alongside resistance to the foremost potent multidrug regimes (e.g. isoniazid and infampicin). Access to health care among the agricultural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa poses the most important threat to TB control. Most tuberculosis patients only have access to obsolete tests developed over a century ago thanks to a scarcity of adequate government resources. The study also established that the Kenyan health care providers often use chest x-rays and smear microscopy for TB diagnosis. However, these tests don't capture the precise challenges posed by HIV/TB co-infection. A recent report TB surveillance report, the trend is drastically changing courtesy of the government of Kenya and development partners including WHO.