HIV seroprevalence by anonymous testing in patients with mycobacterium tuberculosis and in tuberculosis contacts

A study of HIV prevalence among patients with tuberculosis (TB) in south London revealed the ethnic origin and number of patients with TB who were tested for HIV-1. Coinfection rates for TB and HIV range from 18 percent to 23 percent in New York and Los Angeles. A survey of three south London chest clinics showed that out of 202 patients with TB, 23 were HIV-1-positive.

All HIV-infected patients who were of African origin were younger than 34. The blood samples revealed that prevalence of HIV in TB patients is double the number estimated previously. The actual coinfection rate in south London could be as high as 20 percent, according to the authors, because they excluded patients already known to have HIV. Furthermore, they note that the 4 percent TB infection rate among new entrants to the United Kingdom “has serious implications for the provision of health care to asylum seekers, which in London is already overstretched.”

Bowen, E. Frances; Rice, Phillip S.; Cooke, Nigel T et al. The Lancet Vol. 356, No. 9240, p1488. (28/10/00)