Problems occurring in the use of antituberculosis drugs in a reference service for HIV/Aids in Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire).

This study reports on the experience using antituberculosis drugs in a HIV/ Aids reference service in Abidjan during a 64 month period Prevalence of tu berculosis is 1.9% out of a total of 23 957 patients. The annual incidence rate increased slowly from 0.9% in 1990 to 3.5% in 1995. Seropositivity to HIV is 90.8%. Predominant locations of tuberculosis are pulmonary (60.3%) e xtrapulmonary (19.7%) and multifocal or disseminated (20%)). The average pe riod of diagnosis (9.9 days) and average duration of antituberculosis treat ment in hospital (11.8 days) are similar whatever the serological status an d the location of the infection may be. However, the mortality rate is more important in HIV positive patients (39.7%) than in HIV negative (17.6%) p = 0.01. The decision to treat is taken by infectiologists only in 88% of th e cases, by pneumologists only in 2.5%, and both by infectiologists and pne umologists in 9.5%. Side-effects due to antituberculosis drugs were noticed in 19 patients leading to an interruption of the treatment in 10 cases. Th e authors recommend that health personnel be trained for the management of tuberculosis.