Regresar

Therapeutic policy of coinfection by M. tuberculosis and HIV

Abstract:

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most frequent opportunistic infection in HIV-infected patients, with two-way impacts on the patient: by increasing the viral load, TB accelerates the progression from HIV infection to AIDS and, with it, to the death. In turn, HIV makes the diagnosis and treatment of TB difficult and favors the development of various clinical complications. Considering that (1) only two thirds of the HIV-positive population in the world have access to antiretroviral therapy; that (2) a third of those who died from AIDS in 2019 were also diagnosed with TB; that (3) globally, the risk of dying from TB is doubled in the individual with a positive HIV diagnosis; and that (4) in the Americas, only 61% of people with TB-HIV receive antiretroviral treatment, leaving three times more deaths and two times more loss to follow-up in those who are coinfected, there is a worrying reality about the results of current treatment policies for TB-HIV coinfection, making it necessary to explore its bases, scope, and methodologies in America and Ecuador.