Objective: Combined infection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) has attracted wide attention. This study was to find out infection of HIV and occurrence of AIDS in tuberculosis patients.
Methods: Primary screening was conducted in 2 973 inpatients with pulmonary tuberculosis by gelatin particle agglutination assay or rapid gold-labeled HIV 1 + 2 antibody assay. The HIV positive cases were sent to Beijing Municipal Center Laboratory for verification.
Results: Three HIV positive cases were detected among 2,973 pulmonary tuberculosis patients with the positive rate of 1.01 per thousand. Two were male and 1 female with average age of 30 years (23, 27, and 40 years respectively) accounting for 2.86 per thousand of the 21 - 41 age group, among which 1 infected through intravenous drug injection, 2 by heterosexual behavior. And all the 3 HIV positive cases had developed to be AIDS.
Conclusions: Enough knowledge of the risk of combined HIV/MTB infection and high-degree alert should be emphasized in medical professionals involving in diagnosis, treatment and management of tuberculosis. Routine HIV antibody detection in high-risk tuberculosis patients for HIV infection, especially in young and middle-age tuberculosis patients, is helpful for early diagnosis and treatment of AIDS and avoiding its spreading.