BackgroundEthiopia is one of the countries that are highly affected by dual epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB). HIV infection is a known risk factor for the development of active TB and it challenges in diagnosis and treatment of TB. Thus, it is essential to determine the epidemiology of HIV infection among TB patients to guide clinical actions and inform the policy makers. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of HIV infection among TB patients and to describe the associated risk factors for HIV seropositivity.MethodsA retrospective study was conducted on TB registries at Metema Hospital directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) clinic. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association of HIV seropositivity among TB patients. Odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.ResultsOf the total 2096 pateints, 2005 (95.7 %) were tested for HIV. The overall HIV–TB co-infection rate was 20.1 % (404), 12.3 % (246) in males and 7.9 % (158) in females. The highest proportion of co-infection rate was observed among the patients in the age group of 25–34 years (32.4 %) and smear negative pulmonary TB patients (59.7 %). A declining trend of HIV–TB co-infection was observed during the study period, from 22.1 % (185) in 2009/10 to 12.8 % (52) in 2011/12 (X2 = 17.07, P < 0.001).ConclusionsThis study found that HIV–TB co-infection is still high in the Metema area; and occurs more frequently in males than females, and among patients in age group of 25–34 years. Thus, concerted efforts and interventions methods that target these at risk groups are recommended.

Background: Despite the availability of effective drugs, tuberculosis remains to be a major public health problem in the world. This study sought to determine treatment outcomes and to investigate associated factors for poor treatment outcomes among TB patients in Northwest Ethiopia. Method: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using medical records of TB patients who registered and treated at Metema hospital. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to determine predictors of unsuccessful outcomes. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Of the total 2970 patients, 2657 (89.5%) were newly diagnosed TB cases; whereas 167 (5.7%) and 146 (4.9%) were re-treatment and transfer cases, respectively. About sixty percent of the patients were male. The median age (SD) of the patients were 28 years (14.38) and 30.7% of patients were within the age group of 25-34 years. Five hundred eight (20.1%) TB patients were co-infected with HIV. With respect to the treatment outcomes, 65.3% were successfully treated, 88 (3.0%) died, 107 (3.3%) defaulted, 22 (0.7%) failed and 814 (27.4%) were transferred out. A declining trend of treatment success rate (TSR) was observed, from 73.1% in 2009 to 54.5% in 2011/12. Co-infection with HIV (P=0.00) and being male (P=0.02) were associated with unsuccessful treatment outcomes. Conclusion: Treatment success rate (TSR) of TB patients was still low and a declining trend of TSR was observed over the study period. Co-infection with HIV and being male were found to be correlated with poor treatment outcomes. Thus, we recommend targeted medical interventions of the patients at high risk for the unfavorable treatment outcomes.