Frequency of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in diagnosed cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69723/njms.05.01.0689Keywords:
Human immunodeficiency virus, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Socioeconomic factors, Sex characteristicsAbstract
Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis remains a major public health concern, particularly in resource-limited settings, and co-infection with HIV worsens disease outcomes. In Peshawar, where TB is common and HIV risk is increasing, local data on TB–HIV co-infection are limited, underscoring the need to determine HIV prevalence among TB patients to inform integrated management strategies.
Objective: To determine the frequency of human immunodeficiency virus in diagnosed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Methodology: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted at the Pulmonology Department, Northwest General Hospital Peshawar from July 2025 to December 2025, including a total of 110 patients with confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis. Blood samples were analyzed for HIV ribonucleic acid, and demographic, clinical, and socioeconomic data were collected. Statistical associations between HIV positivity and demographics variables were assessed using Fisher’s exact test.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 37.2±8.7 years and mean BMI of 21.0±2.8 kg/m². Most participants were male (62.7%), resided in rural areas (65.5%), and belonged to a low socioeconomic status (71.8%). HIV infection was detected in 10 patients, yielding a prevalence of 9.1% (95% CI: 3.7–14.5%). Stratified analysis showed that male gender was significantly associated with HIV infection (OR = 14.65; 95% CI: 0.84–254.6; p = 0.013), whereas age, duration of tuberculosis, BMI, residence, education level, and socioeconomic status were not significantly associated (p>0.05)..
Conclusion: HIV co-infection is present in a notable proportion of pulmonary tuberculosis patients, particularly among males.
References
REFERENCES
1. Mohammadnabi N, Shamseddin J, Emadi M, Bodaghi AB, Varseh M, Shariati A, et al. Mycobacterium tuberculosis: the mechanism of pathogenicity, immune responses, and diagnostic challenges. J Clin Lab Anal. 2024;38(23):e25122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jcla.25122
2. Ullah H, Ahmed H, Salman A, Iqbal R, Hussaini SJ, Malikzai A. The rising tide of tuberculosis in Pakistan: factors, impact, and multi-faceted approaches for prevention and control. Health Sci Rep. 2024;7(10):e70130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.70130
3. Herrera MT, Guzmán-Beltrán S, Bobadilla K, Santos-Mendoza T, Flores-Valdez MA, Gutiérrez-González LH, et al. Human pulmonary tuberculosis: understanding the immune response in the bronchoalveolar system. Biomolecules. 2022;12(8):1148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12081148
4. Li H, Li Z, Cui X, Liu X, Zhao J, Zhang Y, et al. Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection in diverse clinical specimens by GeneXpert MTB/RIF: a large-scale retrospective study. Infect Drug Resist. 2025;18:2401-2413. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/IDR.S514220
5. Chowdhury K, Ahmad R, Sinha S, Dutta S, Haque M. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) among children: where we stand now. Cureus. 2023;15(2):e35154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.35154
6. Kang TG, Kwon KW, Kim K, Lee I, Kim MJ, Ha SJ, et al. Viral coinfection promotes tuberculosis immunopathogenesis by type I IFN signaling-dependent impediment of Th1 cell pulmonary influx. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):3155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30914-3
7. Tang XZ, Ma Y, Ma Y, Chen Q, Zou LP, Fu XY, et al. Epidemiology of tuberculosis and HIV coinfection among inpatients in Chengdu, China, 2018–2022. BMC Infect Dis. 2025;25(1):1043. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-025-11316-4
8. Huang S, Liu M, Zhang H, Song W, Guo W, Feng Y, et al. HIV-MTB co-infection reduces CD4+ T cells and affects granuloma integrity. Viruses. 2024;16(8):1335. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v16081335
9. Schregenberger S, Graup V, Schibli A, Preiswerk B, Laube I, Huber LC, et al. Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS): case series and review of the literature. Respir Med Case Rep. 2025;55:102213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmcr.2025.102213
10. Patel A, Pundkar A, Agarwal A, Gadkari C, Nagpal AK, Kuttan N. A comprehensive review of HIV-associated tuberculosis: clinical challenges and advances in management. Cureus. 2024;16(9):e68784. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.68784
11. Sossen B, Kubjane M, Meintjes G. Tuberculosis and HIV coinfection: progress and challenges towards reducing incidence and mortality. Int J infect dis. 2025;155:107876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2025.107876
12. Akpaka PE, Tulloch-Reid M, Justiz-Vaillant A, Smikle MF. Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis at the National Chest Hospital in Jamaica. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2006;19(1):38-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892006000100006
13. Memon AR, Memon MA, Altaf A, Shah SA, Zuberi BF, Salahuddin AQ. Frequency of dual tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus infection in patients presenting at tertiary care centers at Karachi. JCPSP. 2007;17(10):591-593. https://doi.org/10.2007/jcpsp.591593
14. Iqbal J, Khan HR, Aqib, Shahbaz M, Shah Nawaz, Lateef W. HIV-pulmonary TB co-infection and mortality – single centre study. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2020;14(3):774-776.
15. Qadeer AS, Qadeer N, Farooq J, Hazim FA, Baig MF, Qasim SF. Diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus in tuberculosis patients. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2020;14(4):1158-1160.
16. Channa AA, Jameel N, Khalil R. Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection among the diagnosed tuberculosis patients in Karachi, Pakistan. Int J Res Med Sci. 2016;4(3):789-793. https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20160519
17. Mirahmadizadeh A, Sharafi M, Hassanzadeh J, Seif M. Prevalence and risk factors associated with tuberculosis and HIV coinfection in Iran: a multivariate firth logistic regression for rare events. J Infect Dev Ctries. 2023;17(12):1775-1781. https://doi.org/10.3855/jidc.17439
18. Gumilang RR, Indriani DW, Diyantoro D, Sundari AS, Indriati DW. The occurrence of tuberculosis infection among newly HIV diagnosed patient in Indonesia. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2022;10(A):893-896. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2022.9529
19. Amin A, Khan FA, Khan I, Imran M, Qaisar W, Rauf HA. Frequency of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in diagnosed cases of tuberculosis (TB) at Gulab Devi Hospital, Lahore. J Pak Soc Intern Med. 2024;5(4):707-710.
20. Kumari GS. A prospective study of spectrum of pulmonary tuberculosis in HIV sero positive patients. Int J Adv Med. 2021;8(12):1856-1860.
21. Akbulut İ, Ödemiş İ, Öz ED, Demirci F, Atalay S. Risk factors for tuberculosis co-infection in people living with HIV: a single-center retrospective cross-sectional study. Anatol J Gen Med Res. 2024;34(2):194-200.
22. Kadam M. Impact of human immunodeficiency virus on category I pulmonary tuberculosis cases in a tertiary care hospital: a case control study. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2023;10(9):3249-3256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20232291
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Hamid Akhtar, Mohammad Asim, Muhammad Asif Zia, Tariq Aziz, Muhammad Aqif Khan Wazir, Muhammd Arsalan (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Readers may “Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format” and “Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
.png)
