World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended strategies for diagnosing tuberculosis would prevent more deaths than the standard approach now used in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, according to results of a cost-effectiveness analysis of people starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One of the WHO strategies cost less than the current approach.

Tuberculosis incidence was 44% lower in HIV-positive people in high-income countries who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) than in those who did not. But the protective effect of ART did not extend to people older than 50 or with a CD4 count below 50 cells/μL.

HIV-positive adults with active tuberculosis when starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania had a similar death rate as people without active TB 48 weeks after treatment began.

Testing all clinic patients for HIV when they get tested for tuberculosis in India’s Mandya district would increase the HIV case-finding rate 51%, according to results of a 1668-person study.

Determine TB-LAM, a urine antigen test for pumonary tuberculosis screening, proved reasonably sensitive in HIV-positive people with low CD4 counts, according to results of a 500-patient study at an antiretroviral clinic in Gugulethu township, South Africa. Sensitivity improved when Determine TB-LAM was combined with sputum smear microscopy.