VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district is facing fresh challenge on the health front. A new trend of HIV-TB co-infection cases pouring in from various pockets has forced the district tuberculosis control wing and the district leprosy department to sit up and take notice of the emerging danger.

Interestingly, the district administration was unaware of the new threat until a group of local voluntary organisations, jointly working on Krishna Community Health Intervention Programme (KRISCHIP) -- funded by the UK-based Community Fund -- took the matter to the notice of the authorities concerned. The objective of KRISCHIP is to reduce the vulnerability of poor rural and urban communities in Krishna district to the spread of communicable diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and leprosy.

"While preparing separate statistics for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, we found the `co-infection' factor creeping into several cases, thus creating a lot of confusion. A large number of persons affected by HIV-AIDS were found to be suffering from tuberculosis too," explained a volunteer from Lepra India, the lead partner in the KRISCHIP.

Mortality rates

According to latest findings, mortality rate in TB with HIV positive cases is four times more than cases of TB with HIV-negative. TB has been found to be shortening the life span of HIV positive patients. It kills half of all HIV-afflicted people in the world.

The district has eight Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centers (VCTCs) and 43 Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) centers. "This is the first time the VCTCs and RNTCPs have been asked to work in coordination to detect the exact number of HIV-TB co-infection cases existing in the district," says the District Tuberculosis Control Officer, Sashidhar Reddy. He admitted that the rise in number of `co-infection' cases has prompted the two departments to focus on making joint efforts to effectively curb the ailment.

In Andhra Pradesh, one person dies of tuberculosis every 15 minutes. If left untreated, a TB-afflicted person can infect at least 10 to 15 persons in the span of a year.

Mr. Reddy says early detection of TB symptoms in HIV positive patients can reduce the mortality rate in co-infection victims. He says training is being imparted to all VCTC and RNTCP counsellors to identify and treat the `co-infection' cases that pose a major threat.

In a survey conducted in 42 of the 135 slum habitations that comprise Vijayawada urban zone, a total number of 498 TB cases were reported, of which, 212 were confirmed. And, 31 of the 72 cases referred were found to be HIV positive. The KRISCHIP volunteers are studying the incidence of `co-infection' to establish the exact number of people victimised by the twin diseases.

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