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Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic had a disruptive impact on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV services. We assessed the in-hospital TB diagnostic care among people with HIV (PWH) overall and before and during the pandemic. Methods: In this prospective study, adult PWH admitted at three hospitals in Ghana were recruited if they had a positive World Health Organization four-symptom screen or one or more World Health Organization danger signs or advanced HIV. We collected data on patient characteristics, TB assessment, and clinical outcomes after 8 weeks and used descriptive statistics and survival analysis. Results: We enrolled 248 PWH with a median clusters of differentiation 4 count of 80.5 cells/mm3 (interquartile range 24-193). Of those, 246 (99.2%) patients had a positive World Health Organization four-symptom screen. Overall, 112 (45.2%) patients obtained a sputum Xpert result, 66 (46.5%) in the prepandemic and 46 (43.4%) in the pandemic period; P-value = 0.629. The TB prevalence of 46/246 (18.7%) was similar in the prepandemic 28/140 (20.0%) and pandemic 18/106 (17.0%) population; P-value = 0.548. The 8-week all-cause mortality was 62/246 (25.2%), with no difference in cumulative survival when stratifying for the pandemic period; log-rank P-value = 0.412. Conclusion: The study highlighted a large gap in the access to TB investigation and high early mortality among hospitalized PWH, irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Graduating student nurses as the future workforce are expected to possess the requisite skill-competence to care for TB/HIV coinfected patients. However, few studies have investigated the self-assessed TB/HIV coinfection care skill-competence of graduating student nurses and its determinants in Accra, Ghana. Purpose: This study investigated final year student nurses’ self-assessed TB/HIV coinfection care skill-competence and its determinants. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional survey among Bachelor of Science in nursing (n = 112) and Diploma in nursing (n = 236) students in their final year of training in four (4) nursing training institutions using convenience sampling technique. Descriptive, independent t and Kruskal Wallis mean rank statistical tests were conducted to identify determinants. Results: TB/HIV coinfection care skill-competencies were low. Determinants of TB/HIV coinfection care skill-competence were age (r = 0.110, p = .048), duration of managing patients (r = 0.219, p = .005) and ownership of nursing training institution (p = .005). Other factors included student nurses’ previous experience working in a TB health facility (p