Sero-prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection among patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis in a teaching hospital in Bauchi, North-Eastern Nigeria

About a third of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive population worldwide is co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, data are lacking about the prevalence of HIV among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a teaching hospital in Bauchi, northeast Nigeria. The aim of this study is to determine the sero-prevalence of HIV among patients with sputum smear positive PTB at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria. This is a retrospective study review of patients’ medical records diagnosed with sputum smear positive PTB that attended and received treatment at directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) clinic of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi, Bauchi State, North-Eastern Nigeria from January, 2015- December, 2017. All the patients were newly diagnosed with sputum smear positive PTB using ZN stain testing of their sputum and screened for HIV antibodies. There were 155 patients studied comprising of 95 (61.29%) males and 60 (38.71%) females. One hundred and twenty (77.42%) patients were seronegative and 35 (22.58%) sero-positive for HIV. Most of the patients were within the ages of 15-54 years with mean age of 34.63±15.55. The sero-prevalence of HIV infection among the patients is 22.58%. Sero-prevalence of HIV is observed to be high among young and married patients with secondary level of education. The sero-prevalence of HIV infection among the patients is relatively lower than those reported in most parts of Nigeria and the sub-Saharan Africa, hence there is still need for continued screening of HIV antibodies among patients with PTB so as to reduce the morbidity and mortality that may result from the coinfection.