HANOVER, N.H., June 16 (UPI) -- Typical tests missed 15 percent of active tuberculosis cases in HIV-infected people in Tanzania, Dartmouth Medical School researchers said Thursday.
Tuberculosis, or TB, is the No. 1 killer of third-world people infected with the AIDS virus.
Researchers from the Hanover, N.H., medical school and Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, said skin tests and X-rays failed to find active TB cases in 15 percent of people participating in the DARDAR Health Study of HIV-infected Tanzanians.
Only sputum cultures detected the TB, which HIV infection makes more difficult to diagnose.
The researchers, writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, called for changing the way TB testing is done in the developing world.
International physicians group Doctors Without Borders issued an advisory that all HIV-infected people receive the more sensitive and accurate sputum culture for TB.
