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Aids babies at high risk of TB

HIV-positive infants are over 20 times more likely to develop tuberculosis than their HIV-negative counterparts, South African researchers report in the current issue of the international journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"The current status of TB amongst HIV-infected children is still very high," Dr Anneke Hesseling told Reuters Health. "This burden is not always accurately assessed because it can be difficult to confirm the diagnosis of TB in young children," she added.

In their prospective study, Hesseling - from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Stellenbosch University - and her team analyzed the prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV among infants attending their hospital in Western Cape province between 2004 and 2006.

During the study period, 245 infants were confirmed as having tuberculosis, the investigators report. Of these, 53 (21.6 percent) infants were HIV positive, 122 (49.8 percent) HIV negative, while the others were untested, they note.

The incidence of tuberculosis was 1 596 per 100 000 population among HIV-positive infants and 65.9 per 100 000 among HIV-negative infants, the researchers estimated.

Much higher TB risk
"HIV-infected infants were at a 24.1-fold higher risk of pulmonary tuberculosis, and a 17.1-fold higher risk of disseminated tuberculosis," they report.

Increased exposure to tuberculosis, HIV-associated immunosuppression and reduced efficacy of the BCG vaccine could explain the increased risk of tuberculosis among these infants, Hesseling suggested.

"A very important strategy to reduce the TB burden amongst infants born to HIV-infected women is to implement TB screening amongst pregnant women," Hesseling commented.

In addition, routine HIV testing of infants with tuberculosis, prophylactic treatment for TB, improved access to HIV treatment and newer vaccines could help reduce the burden, she added.

SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, January 1, 2009.

(Reuters Health, December 2008)

Read more:
HIV/Aids Centre
Tuberculosis Centre

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