When Does Drug Resistant TB Strike HIV/TB Patients?—A South India Experience

Background: India is a high TB (tuberculosis) burden country. The advent of HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) and DR-TB (drug resistant TB) has worsened the ongoing TB control efforts. A study was conducted to (a) to determine the duration for developing drug resistant TB after diagnosis of HIV (b) to ascertain the patients status after one year of DR-TB treatment in Karnataka, India. Methods: It is a retrospective cross-sectional study involving review of records and reports at ART (Anti-retroviral treatment) centres and DR-TB centres in Karnataka during the period 2013-2014. Results: The median time from being known as HIV positive to being diagnosed as DR-TB was 1168 days (IQR: 571 - 1955). At the end of 14 months, nearly 39% of patients had died and 49% of patients were on treatment. Conclusion: The National Health programmes should prioritize monitoring of the HIV/TB patients and develop appropriate novel strategies for community involvement.