Prevalance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in HIV Sero-positive Patients Attending Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia Nasarawa State Nigeria

Tuberculosis is a public health problem especially in developing countries, including Nigeria. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in HIV patients attending Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A total of 399 sputum samples were collected from HIV patient and examined using culture technique, Gene-Xpert, and SD-Bioline techniques. SD-Bioline test was used to differentiate between MTBC and non-Tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM). Risk factors for MTBC were investigated. One hundred and forty-eight (148) MTBC isolates were detected using the culture techniques, 88 MTBC by the Gene-Xpert technique and 37 by the Ziehl-Neelson staining method, and 88 by the rapid test (SD- Bioline test kit) differentiating MTBC from NTM. This result indicates that most of the samples contained NTM (77.9%; 311/399) signifying latent tuberculosis, and 22.1% (88/399) were MTBC. Rate of rifampicin resistance was 13.5% (n = 54) in the study population. RIF resistance was higher in samples from male patients (16.5%; 22/134) than in those from female patients (12.1%; 32/265).