Socio Economic Determinants of Tuberculosis (TB), Multidrug-resistant TB, and Immune Reconstitution Syndrome in HIV-TB Co-infected Patients in Asia.

Study Objectives :

Objective 1: To conduct a detailed assessment of socio-economic risk factors for TB diagnosis and adverse TB treatment outcomes in HIV-infected patients in Asia.

 The hypothesis is that TB diagnoses, as well as poor TB outcomes, will be more common in patients with a range of social and economic pressures that impact health, including education level, employment (e.g., status, types of work performed), housing (e.g., crowding, poor ventilation), and substance use (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs). 

Objective 2: Examine mortality and IRIS under routine care conditions of TB patients initiating antiretroviral therapy  

This will provide insight into whether earlier ART intervention recommended by current treatment guidelines in patients with new TB diagnoses results in similar proportions of IRIS-TB and mortality in patient care outside of clinical trials.

Objective 3: Identify proportions of MDR TB in this group of TB-HIV co-infected cases.

This will provide complementary information to current data on the prevalence of MDR-TB in HIV-infected patients in Asia.