Hypovitaminosis D was highly prevalent in TB patients and in healthy controls living at 12 degrees N; severe VDD was rare in TB patients. The finding indicates that the serum 25(OH)D(3) concentration is associated with TB infection, but whether this role is a symptom or is causal was not established.

IntroductionHIV infected individuals with late presentation (LP) and advanced disease (AD) have been associated with higher mortality, higher cost of medical management, impaired CD4 cell count increment and potentially ongoing risk of HIV transmission. Here we describe the proportion of patients with LP and AD at an HIV clinic in Guinea-Bissau, identify risk factors and evaluate the outcome of these patients.MethodsWe included all patients >15 years diagnosed with HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 at the outpatient HIV clinic at Hospital National Simão Mendes, during June 2005 - December 2013 in a retrospective cohort study. Patients were followed until December 2014. LP and AD was defined as a baseline CD4 cell count of 200-349 cells/µL and <200 cells/µL, respectively.ResultsA total of 3,720/5,562 (65.7%) patients had a CD4 cell count measured within the first 90 days of HIV diagnosis. Forty-eight percent had AD and 23% had LP. Risk factors for presentation with AD were male sex, age >30 years, Fula and Mandinga ethnicity. HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 dually infected patients had lower risk of AD compared with HIV-1 infected patients. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) was initiated for 64.4% of patients, those with AD progression had a 3.82 times higher mortality compared to patients with non-LP.ConclusionThe majority of HIV infected patients presented late. Most of the late-presenters had advanced disease and patients with advanced disease had a very high mortality. Initiatives to enroll patients in care at an earlier point are needed and should focus on risk groups.