Survival Rates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Tuberculosis Co-Infected Patients

BACKGROUND: At present, limited clinical data is available regarding survival rates of patients co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of HIV infection on the survival chances of active TB adults who disclosed their symptoms of TB in this part of Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The records and data of 807 patients only infected with TB and 21 co-infected patients with HIV/TB, who were admitted to primary health care units in Iran, were evaluated. Their survival time was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier Estimator, Log-rank test and SPSS version 16. RESULTS: Cox regression analysis showed that co-infection with HIV significantly affects the survival rate of TB patients so that the rate of death was 20.7 (8.1-53) times more than TB infected patients alone. Also, married patients with tuberculosis were 2.7 times more at risk of death than single subjects. We also confirmed that in HIV/TB positive patients, married individuals were more prone to death than single subjects (P value < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results denote the need to progress diagnostic and preventive measures in this part of Iran.