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Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of adverse drug reactions or events (ADR) during drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) treatment in the context of settings with high HIV prevalence (at least 20% of patients).Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of articles in PubMed and Scopus. Pooled proportions of patients experiencing adverse events and relative risk with 95% CI were calculated.Results: The search yielded 24 studies, all observational cohorts. Ten reported on the number of patients experiencing ADR and were included in the meta-analysis representing 2776 study participants of whom 1943 were known to be HIV infected (70.0%). An average of 83% (95% CI: 82%-84%) of patients experienced one or more ADR. Among the seven articles ( n  =   664 study participants) with information on occurrence of severe ADR, 24% (95% CI: 21%-27%) of patients experienced at least one severe ADR during drug-resistant TB treatment. Sixteen of the 24 studies analysed the relative risk of ADR by HIV infection, nine of which found no statistically significant association between HIV infection and occurrence of drug-related ADR. There was insufficient information to disaggregate risk by concomitant treatment with HIV antiretrovirals or by immunosuppression (CD4 count).Conclusions: No randomized clinical trials were found for WHO-recommended treatment of drug-resistant TB treatment where at least 20% of the cohort was coinfected with HIV. Nearly all patients (83%) experience ADR during DR-TB treatment. While no significant association between ADR and HIV coinfection was found, further research is needed to determine whether concomitant antiretrovirals or immunosuppression increases the risks for HIV-infected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 6 months of treatment, we measured human im-munodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 virus loads, CD4 T cell counts, and immune activation markers, in 111 HIV-1-infected patients with active tuberculosis (TB). The median virus load (baseline, 5.58 log[SUB10] copies/mL) significantly increased at 1 month (5.71 log[SUB10] copies/mL), then returned to near-baseline levels at 3 months (5.40 log[SUB10] copies/mL) and at 6 months (5.36 Log[SUB10] copies/mL). In contrast, the median CD4 counts increased at 1 month (186/mm[SUP3]), at 3 months (238/mm[SUP3]), and at 6 months (239/mm[SUP3]). CD4 counts and virus loads did not change during therapy. Expression of CD38 and HLA-DR remained high throughout treatment, whereas plasma levels of interleukin-6 decreased over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence is high in correctional facilities in southern Africa. With support from local South African nongovernmental organizations, the South African Department of Correctional Services initiated a program of systematically screening newly admitted and current inmates for symptoms followed by GeneXpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)/rifampicin (Rif) for microbiologic testing of symptomatic inmates.Methods. We conducted a program evaluation during a 5-month window describing program reach, effectiveness, adoption within the facilities, cost, and opportunities for sustainability. This evaluation included 4 facilities (2 large and 2 smaller) with a total daily census of 20 700 inmates.Results. During the 5-month evaluation window from May to September 2013, 7426 inmates were screened at the 4 facilities. This represents screening 87% of all new admits (the remaining new admits were screened by correctional staff only and are not included in these statistics) and 23% of the daily inmate census, reaching 55% of the overall screening target as calculated per annum. The reach ranged from 57% screened during these 5 months at one of the smaller facilities to 13% at the largest facility. Two hundred one cases of pulmonary TB were diagnosed, representing 2.1% of the screened population; 93% had documented initiation of TB treatment. The cost per TB case identified was $1513, excluding treatment costs (with treatment costs it was $1880).Conclusions. We reached a large number of inmates with high-volume screening and effectively used GeneXpert MTB/Rif to diagnose pulmonary TB and rapidly initiate treatment. The cost was comparable to other screening programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]