HIV/TB Co-Infection in Mainland China: A Meta-Analysis

BackgroundTB and HIV co-epidemic is a major public health problem in many parts of the world, particularly in developing counties. We aimed to summarize the prevalence of TB and HIV co-infection in mainland China, using meta-analysis based on systematic review of published articles.
MethodsWe systematically reviewed published studies, from the MEDLINE and Chinese BioMedical Literature Databases, on the prevalence of HIV infection among TB patients and on the prevalence of TB among HIV/AIDS population until 15 April 2010, and quantitatively summarized the estimates using meta-analysis.
ResultsIn total, 29 studies were included in this review, with consistently homogeneous results. TB patients, for whom the summary prevalence of HIV infection was 0.9% (0.6%–1.4%) in mainland China, were found to be a potential target population for HIV screening. The prevalence of TB among HIV/AIDS population was 7.2% (4.2%–12.3%), but this was much higher when the analyses were restricted to AIDS patients (22.8%). Significantly higher prevalence was observed for males and hospital-based studies.
ConclusionsOur analyses indicated that the prevalence of HIV/TB co-infection in China deserves special attention, screening of TB among HIV/AIDS populations should be attached more importance, which would be much more helpful for treatment of both diseases.