Coverage of short-course TB preventive therapy regime among people living with HIV registered at a public anti-retroviral therapy centre in Western India.

INTRODUCTION

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of illness and death among people living with HIV. Early initiation of TB preventive therapy (TPT) is crucial for preventing TB infection. As per National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) guidelines, the newer short-course TPT regime-1HP (isoniazid plus rifapentine, once a day for 28 days) is recommended for people living with HIV from May 2024 in India.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the coverage and completion of a newer TPT regime among people living with HIV and factors associated with coverage of TPT, and calculate the incidence of active tuberculosis among those who received TPT at subsequent visits until the end of our study period.

METHODOLOGY: The secondary data, including the clinical and sociodemographic profiles of all people living with HIV who walked in the ART centre of a tertiary care hospital, were collected over a year from September 2024 after receiving permission from the Institutional Human Ethics Committee. The data were entered into Microsoft Excel and analysed using IBM SPSS v25.

RESULTS

Among the 1611 people living with HIV attending the ART centre, 287 were eligible for TPT, of which 217 (75%) started the newer (1HP) regime, and 216 (99.5%) completed it. Only 1 person living with HIV discontinued TPT because of the development of urticaria. There was no significant association between coverage of TPT and the sociodemographic and clinical indicators except area of residence, where it was significantly higher among people living with HIV residing in rural areas as compared to urban areas.

CONCLUSION

The coverage of the newer short-course TPT regime (1HP) was 75%, and the completion rate was 99.5%. TPT coverage was high among people living with HIV residing in rural areas. TB incidence of 0.46% was recorded among those who received the newer TPT regimens.