SA kids Survived with Both HIV & TB
According to a study which has published in the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases from South Africa report HIV-positive toddlers are more than 20 times more likely to expand tuberculosis than their HIV-negative counterparts. Dr. Anneke Hesseling from Cape Town said to media, “The current status of TB amongst HIV-infected children is still very high,” she added, “This burden is not always accurately assessed because it can be difficult to confirm the diagnosis of TB in young children.”
In the prospective research, Hesseling from the Desmond Tutu TB Center, Stellenbosch University, and her group analyzed the prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV among babies attending their hospital in Western Cape Province between the year of 2004 and 2006. The investigators reports, during this research phase, more than 245 infants were confirmed as getting tuberculosis. They note, of those, 21.6% or 53 infants were HIV positive whereas 49.8% or 122 HIV negative, and the rest were untested. The researchers estimated, the prevalence of tuberculosis was 1,596 per 100,000 people among HIV-positive infants while 65.9 per 100,000 people among HIV-negative infants, they said, “HIV-infected infants were at a 24.1-fold higher risk of pulmonary tuberculosis and a 17.1-fold higher risk of disseminated tuberculosis.”
Hesseling opinion was increased exposure to tuberculosis; HIV-associated immunosuppression along with reduced efficacy of the BCG vaccine can explain the increased risk of tuberculosis among those infants. She said, “A very important strategy to reduce the TB burden amongst infants born to HIV- infected women is to implement TB screening amongst pregnant women.” She added routine HIV testing of kids with tuberculosis, prophylactic treatment for TB which improved access to HIV treatment alongside latest vaccines can help reduce the burden.
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