Study shows few HIV patients tested for tuberculosis

A new report suggests that only 1 percent of HIV-positive patients worldwide have been screened for tuberculosis, a curable infection that frequently kills those living with the AIDS virus.

The low TB screening rate is "unacceptable," researchers from the Advocacy to Control TB Internationally (ACTION) coalition said during a press conference at the International AIDS Conference underway here.

"A mere one percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are reported to have been screened for TB," said Dr. Jim Yong Kim, chief of the division of social medicine and health inequalities at Harvard Medical School. "One of the great tragedies of this epidemic is that people who are living with HIV, after hard-fought battles for access to antiretroviral treatment, go on to die needlessly from TB."

Quoting WHO statistics, the report says that of the 33 million HIV-positive people worldwide, only 314,394 individuals had been tested for tuberculosis. Of those who had been screened, over one in four were found to have active tuberculosis, according to a press release issued by ACTION.

"Persons living with HIV/AIDS are 50 times more likely to develop tuberculosis, than those who are HIV negative," the release cautions. "Without treatment, approximately 90% of persons living with HIV/AIDS die within a few months of developing TB."

"We are facing a preventable plague inside a devastating epidemic," said Michel Sidibe, assistant secretary general and deputy executive director of UNAIDS.

Screening for tuberculosis is not mandatory in the programs being funded by the three major international donors -- Global Fund, PREPFAR and the World Bank, the release states.

The ACTION group recommends universal TB screening of all people living with HIV/AIDS and access to the 3 "I"s -- Intensified case finding, Infection control, and Isoniazid preventive therapy.

Screening tests for tuberculosis are inexpensive compared to the cost of the drug cocktails used to treat HIV/AIDS, Kim said in response to a question at the press conference.

An integrated HIV/TB approach is needed, Kim told Reuters Health.

"TB is a curable disease," he said. "It is a crime not to test for tuberculosis."

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