Analysis of the Vulnerability Profile of tuberculosis co-infection in people living with HIV

Abstract

Introduction: studies that seek to identify and outline the vulnerability profile contribute to directing necessary interventions to be carried out in people with tuberculosis (TB) and HIV (acronym in English for human immunodeficiency virus) co-infection, to achieve the end of TB.

Objective: to describe the profile of people with tuberculosis and HIV co-infection, from 2016 to 2018, in Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Methods: this is a cross-sectional descriptive study, using secondary data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) for TB and HIV, through a methodological process of database preparation and descriptive data analysis, the information was encoded and stored anonymously in a database in Excel for Windows®; Afterwards, the STATA statistical package, version 16 (Stata Corp LP, College Station, TX, USA) was used to carry out descriptive analyses with identification of relative and absolute values, and tables were generated for data analysis. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Center of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (CEP/CCS/UFES) under opinion number 4022892 on 05/12/2020.

Results: of a total of 4,428 cases, 325 cases were TB-HIV co-infection, 322 cases were located in the SINAN-TB database and three cases were located after linking with the SINAN-HIV database that presented a record of negative results for the diagnostic test of HIV in the SINAN-TB database. There was a profile with a predominance of men (71%), young people (20 to 39 years old) (52%), mixed race (59%), up to 8 years of schooling (25%), of which 29% reported alcohol consumption, 26% used illicit drugs, and 37% were smokers, who had the pulmonary form of the disease (66%), they reported adherence to antiretroviral therapy (65%) and only 44% had a cure outcome at closure and 20% stopped treatment; the majority of cases (61%) did not undergo directly observed treatment and only 6.9% of cases reported receiving assistance from the government’s income transfer program.

Conclusion: in order to ensure greater coverage of tuberculosis control in PLHIV patients, it is necessary to expand the dialogue between health and social support policies; enable access to health services such as antiretroviral treatment for all people diagnosed with HIV, and timely directly observed treatment (DOT) for people who present this vulnerability profile. Carrying out new studies is essential to contribute to technological advancement and planning in health service actions.