HIV and TB co-infection in South Sudan: a three year retrospective study

Objective: To determine the prevalence of HIV/TB co-infection among patients attending the HIV clinic at Juba Teaching Hospital (JTH) from 2011 to 2013.Method and Materials: This was a retrospective study using data abstracted from the registration book in the HIV clinic. A data sheet was used to collect relevant variables. Data were entered, organized and analyzed using SPSS Version 20 Software. A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered significant.Results: Out of 2,577 patients attending the HIV clinic in JTH from 2011 to 2013, 2,547 (99%) were included in this study. Of these, 27.4% were seen in 2011, 34.1% in 2012 and 38.5% in 2013. There were 1,010 (39.7%) males and 1,537(60.3%) females with a male to female ratio of 2:3. The mean age (x, SD, range) was 30.8 +/-10.8 (0.2-68) years which for males was 33.3+/- 12.2 (1-68) years and 29.1+/-9.5 (0.2-65) years for females. There were 2,318 (91%) HIV monoinfected patients and 229 (9%) HIV/TB co-infected patients. There were 122 HIV/TB co-infected males and 107 females. 39.3% of patients with HIV/TB were aged 25-34 years, and 9.3% were aged 0 14 years. The p-value between the groups and within the groups was statistically significant at p= 0.005. Munuki payam had the highest percentage (31.7%) of HIV/TB co-infection.Conclusion: HIV/TB remains a major challenging health problem with a prevalence of 9%