"TB" the Number One Killer of People With HIVWinter 2002/2003 TB is an infection caused by a bacterium called Mycobacteria tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs but can affect other organs also. TB is a very serious disease, it is estimated that one-third of the people in the world are infected with TB. Ten to 15 million Americans are infected carriers of TB. Tuberculosis (TB) is spread from person to person through the air. If someone with active TB coughs or sneezes on anyone who is close, they can breathe in the bacteria from the air and possibly become infected.
There are two stages of tuberculosis. The first is "inactive TB infection": when a person has been infected with the TB germ, but their body was able to fight the germ and keep them from getting sick.
The risk of developing active tuberculosis is much higher in people who are infected with HIV. Because HIV weakens the immune system, people that have both HIV and TB are 40 times more likely to develop active, infectious TB than people who are not HIV positive. One of the most important aspects of having HIV and TB is that they both make each other worse. TB makes HIV multiply faster and HIV helps TB become active. It is very important for people that are HIV positive to be tested for TB. If infected you need to complete preventive therapy as soon as possible to prevent the TB germ from causing the active disease of tuberculosis, causing your viral load to sky rocket, make you sick and possibly even kill you. It is not easy to treat both TB and HIV at the same time. The drugs used to treat TB and HIV can both cause damage to the liver and kidneys. Also there can be negative drug interactions between the medications used to fight these two individual problems. It is not easy to handle the side effects of treating TB and it may take a long time but it can be cured. The treatment of TB in HIV positive people must be very carefully planned and monitored by a knowledgeable provider to insure that any problems that arise are picked-up and addressed quickly. Communication with your provider is important. ![]()
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