Increasing HIV seropositivity among adult tuberculosis patients in Delhi

We report the HIV seropositivity among adult TB patients from our hospital, a tertiary care hospital in north India between 2000-2002. Of the 555 patients with various forms of tuberculosis, 52 were found to be seropositive (9.4%). In 1994-1999, the HIV seropositivity in this hospital was only 0.4 per cent (2 of 500 patients). This communication describes a dramatic increase in seropositivity and highlights the importance of continued HIV serosurveillance in patients with TB. Key words HIV serosurveillance- India- New Delhi- tuberculosis HIV seropositivity among 555 consecutive adult patients with TB was studied in the medical in-patient and out-patient departments and Chest Clinic at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi from 2000-2002. The mean age of patients was 34.7±15.6 yr (range 12-91), and 333 (60%) were males. The patients were diagnosed to have pulmonary (197), disseminated (177), miliary (32), multi-drug resistant (19) and lymph node (130) TB, as per the criteria described earlier3. HIV ELISA was performed as reported previously3. Briefly, venous blood samples were collected after pre-test counseling and obtaining written informed consent and tested for antibodies to HIV by three different enzyme immunoassay kits [DETECT-HI