[Therapeutic problems with HIV-infected tuberculous spondylitis patients in the South African Republic].

We can only hope, that the dual epidemic of tuberculosis and HIV disease is not going to affect the population of Europe and Hungary so badly and unexpectedly as it happened in sub-Saharan Africa. The spinal tuberculosis with or without paraplegia presents with increasing frequency and their management may differ from those without HIV infection. The success of antituberculotic drug therapy alone reduced the role of surgeons to a largely diagnostic one, however complications frequently require surgery.