Tuberculosis in Children Aged 0-5 Years at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Nigeria - How Common is HIV in Children with Tuberculosis

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death in young children and the risk of progression from infection to disease is higher in the very young especially among those with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. This study therefore aimed to examine the method of TB diagnosis and how common HIV infection is among children 0-5 years with tuberculosis at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

Methods: Information of children aged 0-5 years from 1st January, 2011 to 31st December 2014 were retrieved from the TB register of the Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) clinic of UPTH. This included the age, sex, HIV status, Sputum AFB status, method of diagnosis of tuberculosis and the treatment outcome of the patients. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Research and Ethics committee of the University of Teaching Hospital.

Results: Three hundred and thirty five children were treated for TB and 179 (53.43%) of them were aged 0-5 years. There were 93 (51.96%) males and 86 (48.04%) females, with male: female ratio of 1.08:1. Their mean age was 1.96 ±1.45. The sputum or gastric lavage of 21 (11.73%) were positive for acid fast bacilli (AFB). The common method of TB diagnosis was clinical/ radiological method and this constituted 158 (88.27%) of the patients with TB. Ninety (50.28%) children with TB were less than one year of age and there was no statistical significant relationship between age and method of TB diagnosis (x2 = 2.78, p = 0.249). More males 93 (51.96%) than females 86 (48.04%) had TB but more females 13 (61.90%) than males 8 (38.10%) were AFB positive, however, these were not statistically significant. (x 2 = 1.26 p-value = 0.262). Seventy two (40.22%) of the children with TB were HIV positive. One hundred and thirty five (75.42%) of the children recovered following treatment while 44 (24.58%) were referred to Dots centres closest to the patients. No child died.

Conclusion: The prevalence of TB among under-fives especially among infants is high. Clinical and radiological methods were the common methods of TB diagnosis. HIV prevalence among children with TB was lower than expected by the authors, however, the treatment outcome was good. Re-training of clinicians to improve their expertise on clinical diagnosis of TB and a more in depth search of TB in the community among children 0-5 years who are HIV sero-negative with persistent cough is advocated.