PREVALENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS AND CD4+ CELL COUNTS AMONG HIV SERO-POSITIVE INDIVIDUALS IN KOLFE KERANIYO SUB-CITY’S HEALTH CENTERS, ADDIS ABABA.

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problems in HIV sero-positive individuals in many developing countries including Ethiopia. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of TB and immunological status among HIV sero-positive individuals at Kolfe Keraniyo Sub-city in Addis Ababa. The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey involving a sample population of 384 HIV sero- positive individuals who were selected from three health centers. Socio-demographic data of the patients were collected using structured questionnaire survey. Patients’ with TB was identified using clinical diagnosis, laboratory and microbiological examination of their sputum samples using smear microscopy. Analysis was done using SPSS version 16 statistical software and chi-square and odds ratio were used as measures of association. P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant for all tests. The result showed that the prevalence of TB among different age groups of the HIV patients was 33.1%. Of these, the prevalence of tuberculosis for all groups of males and females was 30% and 35.3%, respectively. TB was significantly associated with some of the risk factors; such as family size, educational status, occupation ( p<0.001). It was also associated with some other socio-demographic factors, such as sex, age and marital status. HIV-TB co infected patients had a significantly lower CD4 + T-cell counts (P<0.001.) compared to TB negative HIV patients. In general, the study has revealed that TB was a major public health problem among HIV sero-positive individuals. Low income, large family size, poor educational status, poor awareness of TB might have responsible for significantly increasing the occurrence of this infection. Increasing people’s awareness of TB and provisions of health education about personal hygiene and environmental sanitation, ventilating houses and having proper feeding habit are recommended to minimize the risk and exposure of TB in the study area.