Integrating tuberculosis and HIV care in rural Rwanda.

SETTING: Rwanda has generalised human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. The Rwandan Ministry of Health approved a policy on TB-HIV collaborative activities in 2005. The present study is a report on the results of the integrated TB and HIV activities at a rural health care site between July 2005 and June 2006. METHODS: Activities included provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling (PITC) of TB patients and the implementation of a standardised TB screening questionnaire for in-patients on medical wards and HIV-infected out-patients. RESULTS: Of a total 259 TB patients registered, 87% with unknown HIV status or who were HIV-negative accepted PITC. Overall, 48% (125/259) of TB patients were HIV-infected. The proportion of TB patients ever tested for HIV increased from 82% (138/169) in 2004-2005 to 93% (240/259) in 2005-2006 (P < 0.001). Of the 770 in-patients screened for TB, 162 (21%) tested positive, of whom 53 (33%) were diagnosed with TB; 39 (76%) of these were HIV co-infected. Three hundred out-patients with HIV were screened for TB; 80 (27%) tested positive, of whom 11 (14%) were diagnosed with TB. DISCUSSION: Activities integrating TB and HIV were feasible in a rural health care setting. PITC was successful in TB patients and unrecognised TB was common, particularly among HIV-infected in-patients.

Evaluation of an intensive intermittent-induction regimen and duration of short-course treatment for human immunodeficiency virus-related pulmonary tuberculosis. Terry Beirn Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA) and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG).

This study examined whether adding levofloxacin to a standard four-drug regimen improved the 8-week culture response and compared effectiveness of 9 versus 6 months of intermittent therapy for human immunodeficiency virus-related pansusceptible pulmonary tuberculosis. Patients were randomized to receive either four or five drugs, the fifth being levofloxacin. Patients who completed induction therapy were randomized to complete 9 versus 6 months of intermittent therapy with isoniazid and rifampin. In the randomized induction phase, 97.3% of patients in the four-drug group and 95.8% in the five-drug group had sputum culture conversion at 8 weeks (P = 1.00). In the continuation phase, one patient (2%) assigned to 9 months and two patients (3.9%) assigned to 6 months of therapy had treatment failure/relapse (P = 1.00). In conclusion, this study showed that levofloxacin added no benefit to a highly effective, largely intermittent, four-drug induction regimen. Both 9 and 6 months of intermittent therapy were associated with low treatment failure/relapse rates.

Susceptibility to levofloxacin of Myocobacterium tuberculosis isolates from patients with HIV-related tuberculosis and characterization of a strain with levofloxacin monoresistance. Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS 019 and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group 222 Protocol Team.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the susceptibility to levofloxacin of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) obtained from patients with HIV-related tuberculosis and to characterize the molecular genetics of levofloxacin resistance. DESIGN AND METHODS: Isolates from culture-positive patients in a United States multicenter trial of HIV-related TB were tested for susceptibility to levofloxacin by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determinations in Bactec 7H12 broth. Automated sequencing of the resistance determining region of gyrA was performed. RESULTS: Of the 135 baseline MTB isolates tested, 134 (99%; 95% exact binomial confidence interval, 95.9-99.9%) were susceptible to levofloxacin with an MIC < or = 1.0 microg/ml. We identified a previously unrecognized mis-sense mutation occurring at codon 88 of gyrA in a levofloxacin mono-resistant MTB isolate obtained from a patient with AIDS who had received ofloxacin for 8 months prior to the diagnosis of tuberculosis. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical MTB isolates from HIV-infected patients were generally susceptible to levofloxacin. However, the identification of a clinical isolate with mono-resistance to levofloxacin highlights the need for circumspection in the use of fluoroquinolones in the setting of potential HIV-related tuberculosis and for monitoring of rates of resistance of MTB isolates to fluoroquinolones.