Swobidu Health

Posts Tagged ‘tuberculosis’

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 11.4 million people in the world have both tuberculosis bacilli and HIV; and the main cause of death in these people is from tuberculosis (TB) and not AIDS. Statistics show that in the United States, two out ten people who have the disease also have HIV.

When a person is infected with TB, the bacteria may lie dormant for years without causing the disease. however, in people with compromised immune systems, the bacteria become active causing the manifestation of the disease. and, this is exactly what happens to people who have HIV.

It is a serious infection when it comes to people with HIV. Under normal circumstances, only 10 percent of people will get the disease even if they have the disease-causing bacilli. however, in people who have HIV infection, the chances of getting TB increase significantly. One out of three HIV infected people will get the disease in the first year of the infection and thereafter one in ten will get it.

A person who has HIV should get tested for the TB bacilli because the chances of getting the disease are extremely high. however, the normal TB skin test result may be false negative and that is why it is best to have a skin test along with a chest X-ray to rule out the disease completely.

A person with active TB can infect another person immaterial whether he has HIV or not. however, a person with the disease and full blown AIDS cannot spread it more easily than a person who has just TB. But the fact remains that people who are HIV positive are more likely to develop TB once they are infected with the TB-causing bacilli.