The rates of tuberculosis (TB) recurrence and mortality in people with HIV in eastern Europe remain concerningly high and continue to be a clinical and public health challenge, according to a paper published in AIDS. In the first study to report on long-term follow-up of TB/HIV co-infected patients in eastern Europe, one in seven people had TB again and over half died.

A study from Thailand has found that the incidence of tuberculosis was remarkably high among people with HIV during the first year on antiretroviral therapy, and thereafter, decreased significantly until reaching levels comparable to those in the Thai general population after ten years. The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, is important as it is most probably the first to report such data from a high TB/HIV burden country in Asia.

One in five public health facilities in South Africa were unable to supply at least one antiretroviral (ARV) or tuberculosis (TB) drug on the day they were contacted by researchers, while over a third had had a drug stockout in the previous three months, according to a national survey published in PLOS ONE.

Around one-third of people living with HIV in Eastern Europe who were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) had multidrug-resistant TB, according to the findings of a global study of TB and HIV management in high- and middle-income countries.